"I got closer to God"

“I would like to share my experiences around the Culture of Worship conference. To be honest I never really planned going there until Lara (Youth Pastor) asked me to give a prophecy. When I arrived I felt so nervous and scared to share what I had to say but as we were worshipping I kept saying to myself: I'm not doing this for myself, I'm doing it for God. I went up and I talked about Matthew 6:25-34.

When I was getting prayed for by Tina at the conference, she shared what Jesus was telling her about me. I have never shared this with anyone but she said she had the impression I felt like a puppet on a string, I would do things to please others and that I would have to act a certain way to fit in with certain people. It was true!

The next day, I was reading Matthew 6:15 which talks about forgiveness. While reading that I thought about this specific girl from my school. I didn’t like her at all because I found her extremely annoying and she also wrote bad stuff about my best friend on her status. I was so angry and I made it extremely obvious about my anger towards her. I would say bad stuff about her out loud so that she heard, congratulate people for making fun of her and join in with them.

God helped me realise this so I went up to her alone and told her that it's okay and that I forgive her and I've stopped saying bad stuff about her. I was always worried about what my other friends would think but everything in the world is temporary. It won't last forever and if we do the right thing we will get our reward in heaven. It is better to do the right thing now than face the consequences later.

That is exactly what the Culture of Worship Conference helped me with. It helped me to get closer to God, open my eyes and made me want to do what's right in God's eyes.”

Jemimah