I was thirty-three years old. It was during the second week of July that year when a deep and searching question suddenly arose within my heart.

Many of you have your own life stories—stories of struggles, achievements, failures, discoveries, and turning points. I, too, have a story to tell. It is a testimony of how God Almighty took my life, which was once centred on earthly ambitions and personal achievements, and gave it a completely new direction, purpose, and hope.

I would like to share with you how the Lord changed my life—from the life I was living to the life He intended for me.

The Life I Once Lived

Until a few years ago, I was much like many people around me. I had dreams, ambitions, and plans for my future.

I wanted a good education. I wanted a good career. I wanted to succeed in life and achieve more than many of my college mates and colleagues. I worked hard, pursued my ambitions, and, by the grace of God, I was able to accomplish many of the things I had set out to achieve.

From the outside, my life may have appeared to be progressing well.

But there was something missing.

I had been so occupied with building my life on earth that I had given very little thought to what would happen beyond this life.

Then one day, everything changed.

The Question That Changed Everything

I was thirty-three years old.

It was during the second week of July that year when a deep and searching question suddenly arose within my heart.

It was not a question about my career.

It was not about money.

It was not about success.

It was a question about eternity:

Where will I end up at the end of my life?

That question would not leave me alone.

I began asking myself:

When my life on this earth is over, will I have complete satisfaction with everything I have achieved?

Who will inherit the fruits of all my sweat, sacrifice, and lifelong hard work?

Are the things I am accomplishing in this world truly eternal?

What would happen if I died suddenly, at a moment when I least expected it?

For the first time, I began to look beyond this temporary life and seriously consider eternity.

What Happens After Death?

Deep inside me, I became convinced that death could not possibly be the end of everything.

When a person dies, the body remains here on earth. But what about the real person? What about the spirit within us?

Where does it go?

Surely, I thought, it must go somewhere.

The thought both fascinated and frightened me.

I desperately wanted to know the truth about life after death.

So I began searching.

I spoke with wise and knowledgeable people. I had long conversations with others. I read books from different religious traditions. I searched through the resources that were available to me.

I was not looking merely for another philosophy.

I was looking for the truth.

And eventually, I found what I believe with absolute conviction to be the greatest truth of all.

The Book I Had Ignored

I had possessed a Bible from a very young age.

I had grown up in what could be described as a nominal Christian family. We had several copies of the Bible in our home.

Yet, strangely, I had never truly understood its importance.

The Bible was there, but I had not seriously studied it.

For the first time in my life, I began to open it—not simply as a religious book, but as someone desperately searching for answers.

I began reading it with the curiosity of a child learning the alphabet of his mother tongue for the first time.

And something began to happen.

As I read and meditated upon the Scriptures, I felt that God Himself was speaking to my heart through His Word.

The words on those pages were no longer merely words.

They were confronting me.

They were revealing to me.

They were changing me.

When God's Word Revealed My Heart

The more I read, the more I began to see myself as I had never seen myself before.

I realised that I was proud.

I realised that I could be judgmental.

I realised that my thoughts, attitudes, intentions, and actions were not as good as I had imagined.

God's Word began penetrating the deepest places of my heart.

My heart, which had been hard in many ways, began to melt under the influence of God's truth.

I became deeply conscious of my sin.

I began to understand that the problem was not simply the things I had done wrong. The problem was within me.

My thoughts.

My motives.

My desires.

My pride.

My attitudes.

My words.

My actions.

I remember asking myself:

If I were to stand before a perfectly righteous God and be judged according to my thoughts, intentions, words, and deeds, what would I deserve?

I could no longer justify myself.

I could no longer hide behind my achievements.

My education could not save me.

My career could not save me.

My possessions could not save me.

My reputation could not save me.

My good works could not erase my sin.

I came to the realisation that I needed forgiveness.

I needed a Saviour.

Discovering the Grace of Jesus Christ.

And then I discovered the most beautiful truth of all.

God was willing to forgive me.

Not because I deserved it.

Not because I had achieved enough.

Not because I had made myself worthy.

But because of His grace and because of what Jesus Christ had done for me.

When I placed my trust in Jesus Christ, everything changed.

The God whom I had once thought about from a distance became personal and real to me.

He became my Father, just as He promised in Scripture.

Jesus Christ became my Lord and Saviour.

I discovered that I was no longer walking through life alone.

I had someone to guide me.

Someone to strengthen me.

Someone to correct me.

Someone to comfort me.

Someone to give me wisdom when I did not know what to do.

Someone to give me hope when circumstances were difficult.

My relationship with God became the foundation of my life.

A Completely New Purpose

Since that time, my life has never been the same.

God has given me a new purpose.

My family life has changed.

My secular life has changed.

My social life has changed.

Most importantly, my understanding of life itself has changed.

I now have a destination.

I know where I am going.

And because I know where I am going, I also have a much clearer understanding of how I should live each day.

My life is no longer simply about earning, achieving, competing, possessing, and accumulating.

It is about knowing God.

It is about serving Him.

It is about loving people.

It is about sharing the good news of Jesus Christ.

It is about using the life God has given me for a purpose greater than myself.

The Joy of a Different Kind of Life

Today, my family and I experience the grace of God in ways that are difficult to put into words.

God has blessed us with wonderful brothers and sisters in Christ—people who encourage us, pray for us, walk with us, and share the journey of faith with us.

What an amazing life this is!

A life lived with purpose.

A life lived by faith.

A life lived with contentment.

A life in which I no longer need to measure myself against everyone else.

No endless competition.

No bitterness.

No grudge.

No constant desire to prove myself.

Instead, I have learned to be thankful for what God has given me and to serve others without constantly asking, “What will I receive in return?”

Today, I have the privilege of serving the Lord and His Church while also continuing with my full-time secular work.

I know that I cannot do everything by my own strength.

But I have seen God enable us, strengthen us, and open doors for service that I could never have opened myself.

If I Wrote Everything Down...

If I were to write down every experience I have had since beginning this journey with the Lord, it would fill hundreds of pages.

There have been moments of joy, moments of difficulty, moments of learning, moments of weakness, moments of answered prayer, and moments when I have experienced God's grace in ways I cannot adequately explain.

Some of my writings and testimonies are available online, and I have also shared some of these experiences through videos.

But even after all these years, I would say this:

The greatest miracle is not what God has given me. The greatest miracle is what God has done in me.

He changed my perspective.

He changed my priorities.

He changed my heart.

He changed the direction of my life.

He gave me forgiveness where I knew I was guilty, hope where I had uncertainty, purpose where I had ambition without eternity, and peace where I had questions.

My Friend, What About You?

Perhaps you are reading this and struggling with something in your own life.

Perhaps you have achieved many of the things you once dreamed about, yet something inside you still feels empty.

Perhaps you have a successful career but no peace.

Perhaps you have a comfortable home but a troubled heart.

Perhaps you have many people around you but still feel alone.

Perhaps you are worried about your family, your children, your future, or your failures.

Perhaps, like me, you have spent much of your life thinking about this world while rarely thinking about eternity.

If that is you, I want to encourage you:

Do not ignore the deepest questions of your soul.

Your life is precious.

Your time is precious.

Your family is precious.

Your influence on the people around you is precious.

And your life is more than what you can see with your eyes.

Think About Eternity

One day, every one of us will come to the end of our earthly journey.

The things we accumulate here will remain behind.

Our possessions will remain.

Our careers will end.

Our achievements will become memories.

Someone else may inherit what we worked so hard to build.

But the question remains:

Where will you spend eternity?

That is not a question I can answer for you.

It is a question each one of us must face personally.

Think about yourself.

Think about your family.

Think about your children.

Think about the generations that will come after you.

Think about the people whose lives you influence every day.

Your life can make a difference.

Your choices can affect others.

And when God changes a person's life, that transformation can become a blessing to an entire family and even to generations that follow.

Come to Jesus Christ

My friend, if you are searching for truth, I encourage you to seek the Lord Jesus Christ sincerely.

Open the Bible.

Read it for yourself.

Ask God to reveal His truth to you.

Bring your questions to Him.

Bring your failures to Him.

Bring your fears to Him.

Bring your brokenness to Him.

Bring your whole life to Him.

I came to understand that I could not save myself through my achievements, education, goodness, or efforts.

I needed Jesus Christ.

And I discovered that His grace was greater than my failures and His forgiveness greater than my sin.

That is why I can say today, with gratitude: 

Jesus Christ changed my life.

He gave me a new beginning.

He gave me a new purpose.

He gave me a new hope.

And He gave me a reason to live—not merely for this temporary world, but with eternity in view.

If you are willing to seek Him with a sincere heart, I encourage you to take that first step.

Your life will never be the same when you truly encounter the grace of God.

May the Lord Jesus Christ bless you, guide you, and lead you into His truth.

Many blessings,

Pastor Renji George

Scriptures: Acts 4:12, Nehemiah 8:10, Psalms 37:4, Psalms 51:12, Psalms 66:16

Sermon Topics: Salvation, Life, Testimony