Christian living

Q&A Collab: Prayer, Seeking God, and Faith

Rachel @ Joyful Creations

A month or so ago, Coco Ashley reached out to her readers and asked if any of her readers would like to be interviewed for a series on her blog and I loved the idea! She had very thought-provoking and unique questions, and I really liked what we came up with!! Enjoy! xoxo, Rachel

When did you accept Jesus, and what was that experience like for you?

Accepting Jesus has been a process over years rather than a prayer in a moment for me.  I prayed a kind of prayer of salvation when I was 6 years old, but I didn’t come to a full realization of the real meaning of the gospel until I was about 13. 

For years before, I had been struggling with perfectionism and self-righteousness.  I did everything right on the outside, but I missed the joy that comes in knowing God and relying on Him entirely.  I prayed but didn’t know God.  I read His Word, but it was only to “check the box.”  I witnessed, but did so without a full understanding of God’s mercy – the very center of the gospel.  I thought I had to muster up faith, love, and obedience.

When I finally realized it wasn’t up to me, I felt a huge burden lifted off my shoulders.  Prayer, I realized, should be my first response to sin.  In repentance, yes, but also to ask God to change my heart, for only He can make my desires align with His.  

Instead of feeling the weight of pride and guilt, I felt the humility and joy that comes from relying on God for grace.

Why do you personally continue to seek Jesus? In what ways has He changed your life?

That’s a question I’ve struggled with for years.  Why follow Jesus?  What difference does he make?  But then why do I keep up with my best friends?  Don’t I just keep up with them (“seek” them, in a way) because they are worth knowing?

Ultimately, I follow Jesus because He is the most wonderful, most forgiving, most holy, most amazing, most funny, most faithful, most creative Person I know — and knowing Him is the best thing I can experience.  The reason Heaven is going to be so amazing is that I’ll be with Him!  He, in and of Himself, is worth pursuing and knowing.

And Jesus really does change everything.  He’s taken the burdens of self-righteousness and perfectionism off my shoulders innumerable times.  He’s freed me and shown me what consistent, unconditional love looks like.

He’s given me a real purpose in life.  Anticipating His will has brought me excitement and hope on hard days.  When I’m scared about the future, He is my hope.  When I’m lonely, He is the one who I can talk to.  When I fail over and over and over again, He is faithful.  He is worth seeking and knowing.

What is the hardest struggle for you about being a Christian and/or believing/obeying the Bible?

Read More on Coco’s blog

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Related: Video Q&A: Faith, Friends, and Life

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Published by Rachel @ Joyful Creations

I'm a teen girl, and I love writing, all things active, and dancing to music in my room. 🙃 I especially love to swim and run and am forever grateful for the grace I receive every day from my Savior, Jesus.

9 thoughts on “Q&A Collab: Prayer, Seeking God, and Faith”

  2. Lovely interview! I especially appreciated the part about evangelism, giving a stone in their shoe. It’s also something I struggle with. Also what you said about reading God’s word, not as a book but to spend time with him – that was really touching. ❤

    The lying essay gave me a thought: lying is definitely always bad, but I think there are times when it's better to lie, you know? Mostly in cases where other lives are at risk. For example, like in the Sound of Music, when the nuns lied to the Nazis about harboring the family inside the convent.

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    1. Thank you, Elisha! 😘

      And about the lying issue (long comment ahead lol)- I think most people would agree with you, yes. 😊 I still like to lean more to the side of lying is always wrong though. Ultimately, I think lying reveals a lack of trust in God and the more we compromise on lying being okay in certain circumstances, the less serious we view lying in general. I also think that when we obey God’s commands and trust Him with the rest, He will take care of us. I think that is a better option than lying: telling the truth even when we can’t see a way out. Of course, I still think those who lied to protect others ultimately did great things (in saving Jews, for example) and I’m not entirely against the thought that there could be a small exception. In my own mind, though, I would hope to tell the truth. Corrie Ten Boom lied quite often to protect the Jews while her sister stayed commited to telling the truth. God used them both. Once, Corrie’s sister (not Betsy, but Nollie) answered truthfully about a Jew living with her and both she and the Jew were carried away to prison. Miraculously, the prison which was holding the Jew at the time was broken into the next night and all the prisoners were freed. Nollie had a longer stay in prison, but that ultimately prepared her for future things too. So I think if we obey and trust God, we might go through some suffering, but He’ll honor that obedience.
      anyways, long comment, but those are my thoughts:) 😊❤

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      1. Yay I love long comments! 😊 Thank you for sharing your perspective! Really gave me a lot of food for thought. I definitely agree with you that lying is always wrong, though I’ve spent a lot of time pondering the case of Nollie, and similar ones. It’s a very difficult case, and a situation I pray that I’m never put in, or if I am, that God will give me enough faith and trust to do the right thing when the time comes.

        I also like to think of the story of Rahab, how she lied about the spies, yet clearly God still used her for good. Maybe that was where her faith was at the time. It gives me hope, because even if I am too weak to tell the truth in such difficult situations, God can still use it for good.

        But yes. 99% of the time, lying is clearly wrong. It’s just that special case, when other lives are at risk and there’s little personal benefit, that perhaps I will understand more later in my walk with God. 😊

        (btw I found this article illuminating. Thought I’d share it with you. 🙂 https://answersingenesis.org/morality/a-righteous-lie/)

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  3. Powerful interview! I totally agree with what you said about doubt often coming as a result of mood swings. It seems like the devil always strikes when we’re at our lowest! Sometimes I have trouble accepting God’s grace because I imagine how much it must hurt Him when I listen to the doubt instead of turning to His Word.

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