Baptism is a symbol of the new life believers have in Christ. This is Olivia Kinard’s Matheny’s public profession of faith in Jesus from her baptism on Sunday, September 10, 2023
There was a point in my life when I realized I couldn’t take the heavy weight of the world by myself, and before I knew who god was I was so broken. I would start to wonder if there was a God that genuinely loved me like he said he did, where was he? And I grew bitter because I felt like I didn’t deserve any of the things I was going through. One day I prayed to him and said if you’re really here with me show me, and I genuinely was expecting a lightning bolt to strike me at that moment, but little did I realize God was going to throw me into a situation that I was 100% not prepared for and I definitely couldn’t take the weight of it on my own. It was only till this experience that had led me to him. My life was “normal” for a kid because I didn’t know anything about god I didn’t realize what was wrong or right but things switched up around 7th and 8th grade year in middle school. When god decided to show me himself. September 6th, 2021 I witnessed my neighbor commit. For a while after that, I had felt guilty and often blamed myself for everything. Why didn’t I do something? Or why this and that, but I didn’t have an answer for any of those questions. I thought that the only way I would get what I deserved was to starve
myself. At this point I didn’t really attend church besides on big holidays like Easter or Christmas, it wasn’t until spring 2022 I started to attend church at Redeemer regularly. To be completely honest I didn’t think that there was a point of going because I thought God hated me. I believed that if I didn’t even love myself why would God want anything to do with me? That summer I went on my first RSM camping trip in Arkansas. God spoke to me on this trip during the trip I was talking to one of the leaders about my life and what my relationship with the lord was like. Throughout this conversation, I remembered her saying “You can run to God with your doubts, mistakes, worries all of that, and what you are feeling, God will be there for you with open arms, he’s been waiting for you to open the door you just have to make the decision to do so.” I understood that day that God wants to restore and love broken people no matter what you’ve done or what your story is, you don’t have to fix yourself up before coming to him because I learned that you will never be good enough for him, but god wants you the way you are, you have to accept that you are a sinner and nothing you do will change that. I’m not good enough for him no one is, but it’s your choice to let him in, and that took a long time for me to
understand. She told me that I was God's child now and I don’t have to worry because he’s got me now. That day I accepted him into my life, I opened the door to welcome him in, and he changed everything about my life I can confidently say I’m not the same person I was 3 years ago and since then my relationship has grown tremendously and to now be able to look back at my story and seeing God has been with me through thick and thin is such a big relief. I know now that whatever I go through God will always be holding my hand. And for that, I’m grateful to call him my father because I deserved everything and so much more pain than that because I am a sinner it should’ve been me up on that cross but God took my place and your place on the cross so we wouldn’t have to pay. In my darkest moments, God had used it to show me himself. I now can look back on that chapter of my life and smile I would’ve never thought I would be here reading this to you but here I am now.
In Romans chapter 8 verse 18 it says ”I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.” This verse means a lot to me because no matter how much pain I’m in at the moment God has my back and sooner or later there will be joy for me just be patient and that the pain is only temporary.