Seeking God’s Presence

DAY 22 – JUNE 27th, 2016

My Journey: Seeking God’s presence

A testimony from a Muslim Background Believer

I was born into a Muslim family.  Some of my family members were secular and worldly, and some were religious. My Sufi father was very religious, and had a strong influence in my life. At the age of ten, I started to search for God. I was eager to seek His presence and did all that was in my power to come closer to Him.

As a youth, I continued to search with even greater intensity, by praying, fasting and going to mosques. I was not only doing the regular prayers, but I was calling upon God with all my heart. Those years of searching after God in Islam ended in the realisation that God was no nearer to me, in fact he seemed very distant from me. By the time I entered college I had given up on my search for God.

One evening while walking together with friends, I heard the gospel for the first time. A born-again Christian, introduced to me by a common friend, was testifying and sharing the message of Jesus to me openly on the streets of Cairo. One week later I attended church with him – only four weeks later I would receive Jesus as my Saviour! My experience was exactly as the young believer had explained to me: “Come and see for yourself, – Jesus is alive, He heals and sets people free”.

That evening I prayed to Jesus for the first time. I asked Him: “What is the way?  Is Christ the way to God?”  The answer was “Yes”. I said ‘OK’ in my heart and immediately experienced God’s presence, heavenly joy and peace. I became a Christian when I said OK to Jesus!

Sometime afterwards, I suffered strong persecution from family and the local community, but the presence and glory of the Lord was so strong in me that I did not care about the loss and the risk I took by becoming a follower of Jesus.

How to Pray

• Pray that Muslims will seek God Himself and not a religion.
• Pray that Muslims in who follow Christ in nations which do not have freedom of faith will find ways to be a clear testimony to their relatives and friends.
• Pray for Muslims who are longing for a greater understanding of God’s presence, that they will find Him through any possible means.