Path to Contentment

Written by Sheila Jacobs

How I loved the stories that my granny used to tell me about Jesus when I was growing up! I didn’t have a church background, but when Granny came to stay, I learned lots of Bible stories and came to believe that Jesus was alive today! I prayed and read the Bible a bit, too. The trouble was, I was also interested in the occult, and as I got older, my real “religion” was astrology. I picked my friends and even my boyfriends by their star signs! I was into UFOs, palmistry–all sorts of stuff. Strangely, though, I honestly thought I was a Christian, because I also believed in God and Jesus.

By the time I was a young woman, I didn’t want to hear Granny talking about Jesus anymore. I was pretty sure she wanted me to stop enjoying my pub and club lifestyle when she told me to “come out from among them!”

Then, my world fell apart. My parents split up. Other things began to happen, too; negative things, such as a good friend who was only in his 20s, being found dead, and a business venture failing. I began to feel almost constantly sick with nerves and couldn’t work. My doctor put it down to stress.

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The pub and club lifestyle suddenly seemed empty and pointless. Astrology couldn’t help me, and neither could any of the occult beliefs I held. They gave me no comfort! I was 25 years old, scared of life and the future.

Then Granny came to stay. Accompanying her to a local Christian bookshop, I picked up an autobiography called, I Dared To Call Him Father, by Bilquis Sheikh. She was a divorced Muslim woman who had become a Christian.

As I read it, I was stunned. This woman really knew Jesus personally; it struck me that I didn’t know Jesus like she did, or as my granny did. I knew something about Him, but I didn’t actually KNOW Him in my life. I decided that if Jesus was real, and I could know Him, I wanted to.

So I dropped to my knees beside my bed and said, “Lord, if you’re really there, You handle my life because I can’t handle it anymore!” I got up a different person. Later, I realized that the Holy Spirit had come into my heart, and given me a clean new life–I was born again. That was what was causing me to feel so much peace and joy! I had never felt so peaceful in my life before. I’d been so depressed, but now I couldn’t stop smiling!

Life had changed forever. The nervous sickness went away and I was able to work again. I found a church to attend, and my mother became a Christian because she saw the change in me, shortly followed by my then-boyfriend.

Not long after I came to know Jesus as my Lord and Savior, I felt called to full-time Christian service. I didn’t know what God wanted me to do, but He seemed to lead me into youth work. I studied at home to get a diploma in theological studies with London Bible College in preparation for whatever God wanted me to do with my life. But I contracted Meniere’s disease, a debilitating illness which affects the balance and I felt terribly low and miserable as I realized that I wasn’t going to be able to work full time for God after all.

I was so unhappy. But at that time a wise Christian friend told me to rest in the Lord and let Him accomplish whatever He wanted to in my life without my striving! So I let go of all my ambitions and felt content; I knew that God wanted my friendship more than my “work” for Him. I even let go of my greatest lifelong ambition, which was to write a novel.

Not long after I did this, by a few coincidences, and amazing blessing, a publisher (Christian Focus Publications, Scotland) showed interest in something I had written for children. Some time later, my first Christian children’s novel for children, Aliens and Strangers, was published! The following year, 1998, my second book, Rollercoaster Time, was published and won the Christian Broadcasting Council of the UK’s Gold Award for Published Children’s Book! Two more books have followed, with more in the pipeline.

I still cannot get over the faithfulness and goodness of God who has changed me from a frightened, nervous girl who was trusting in the occult, to a new creation in Jesus, telling young people about the reality of the God who loves us so much He sent His Son to die for us on the cross; the God who loves and forgives us, sets us free, and gives us new, clean lives, lives lived in the power of the Holy Spirit.

What about you? Are you living your life in the power of the Holy Spirit?

God wants to be our leverage in living, empowering us to feel better about ourselves, more excited about our future, more grateful for those we love and more enthusiastic about our faith.

If you are a believer in Jesus Christ, God has given you His Holy Spirit to help you live life according to His perfect plan. Why not pray this simple prayer and by faith invite Him to fill you with His Spirit:

Dear Father, I need you. I acknowledge that I have sinned against you by directing my own life. I thank You that You have forgiven my sins through Christ’s death on the cross for me. I now invite Christ to again take His place on the throne of my life. Fill me with the Holy Spirit as You commanded me to be filled, and as You promised in Your Word that You would do if I asked in faith. I pray this in the name of Jesus. As an expression of my faith, I thank You for directing my life and for filling me with the Holy Spirit. Amen.