God bless you. I am a 22-year-old young woman.

I’ve been listening to this precious Message for 11 years. I gave my heart to the Lord at age 12, and I started a whole different life. Years went by and I thought I was living right but had never taken that step.

I thought I had surrendered everything to follow the Lord. I thought if I died, I would go to Heaven and things like that, but I didn’t really have a rightful life.

At the age of 21, I strayed from my walk with Jesus Christ and got involved with worldly friends. Wanting to work, I left my parents and started to do wrong things unfit for a Christian, although I still went to church.

The prophet says we cannot sin and then get by with it. Over time, I went through a situation like every young man or woman does, and I was very disappointed. I left my job supposedly to serve the Lord, but I didn’t. About a month later, I got sick and had to take medications for a stomach infection. After that I also suffered from neuritis, which distressed me a lot. I felt it was a punishment from the Lord. A nervousness spirit came over me and I got very depressed, crying day and night.

I talked to my pastor and he comforted me. I apologized to the church, and everything remained the same. Then, I struggled with insomnia, the three things together, and I felt I couldn’t go on.

I wanted to work again, but my nervousness didn’t let me perform my job and I quit again. I felt like Job, wanting to talk with God face to face, but I felt He wouldn’t listen to me after praying so hard.

Four months went by and everything was the same. It went through my mind to fill that emptiness with drugs or alcohol, but I never did; I only thought about it because I was very depressed. One night, while I was praying with my parents (we have family altar at night), my dad played a tape titled “Balm In Gilead”, and all of a sudden, so many thoughts came over me that I started to hear voices telling me: “You are useless. Committing suicide is the best way. You can’t work, your parents don’t love you, no one loves you as you are.” I felt so awful, I started to take in those thoughts.

But it was that time my mind caught the Voice on the tape. "Is there no balm in Gilead? Why does the daughter of my people look in another place?" That was like a Light for my soul, and I listened to the tape more and more. I started to hold on to that and testify that I was healed.

Although I didn’t see results, it’s been a year since that and I am a whole woman. I see all that happened to bring me back to the feet of Jesus Christ, with a greater assurance of what I do and believe.

Sometimes the enemy wants to pull me back to those same things, but His Word is stronger! “The name of the LORD is a strong tower: the righteous runneth into it and is safe.”

Sister Nereida