I chose Christ above everything else

I was 22 when I had just accepted Jesus Christ into my life. I was born into a staunch Hindu family. Like most Hindu families, we were brought up to worship Hindu deities. When persons brought up in such traditions decide to become Christians, they are not only seen as abandoning their traditional faith but also as betraying their heritage. They bring shame on their family and community by following a foreign religion and putting their loyalty in a foreign God.

My father detested me for becoming a Christian. He felt that I brought great shame and embarrassment to the family. But for me, it didn’t matter what he thinks. What mattered to me at that point in time is that I tasted the goodness and the mercy of my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. I came to know Him for who He is. I encountered Him and I had to choose Him above everything else. And I did.

The price I had to pay for following Christ is to be disowned by my own family. I was looked as an alien and was treated with disrespect. I am the first in my family to become a Christian. The Bible says in Acts 16:31;

Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved-you and your household.”

Of course, that does not mean that my family would be saved simply because I, myself believed in God-salvation comes through a personal, individual response to God; it cannot be “passed on” or inherited. However the gospel can gain a foothold in the lives of a family through the first person to turn to Christ; it opens the door for the rest of the family to hear and see the gospel in action.

This verse simply gives me the hope that one day my parents and siblings would also come to know God and I have the opportunity to become the first messenger, the first ever witness of the gospel to my family. In Luke 14:26, Jesus says;

If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters-yes, even their own life-such a person cannot be my disciple.”

I had to choose between life or death. I chose Jesus because He is the living water. He is life. Jesus didn’t ask His disciples to hate their families in the literal sense. He was challenging them to weigh the cost of discipleship and ask themselves if they were ready to make him the Lord of their lives. I am willing and I want to make Him the Lord of my life because He gives life to everything I do.

Are you facing a similar situation? Does your family or your community object to your faith in God? Are you under pressure to return to your former beliefs and recant your faith in Christ, and do you wonder whether this faith is worth the pain? Let me tell that He is worth it. Keep the faith. May the Lord bless you always. Here is a song I listen to everyday to remind myself of His mercy over life;