Sary knew she needed to be released from her prison. Taking the living water that Jesus offered was the key …
Raised as a Muslim
I was born in Jakarta, Indonesia. My mother and father separated when I was four and I lived with my mother and her new husband (my stepfather) for a year before I moved to Sydney with my father. My family raised me as a Muslim. When I was a young girl, my father enrolled me in an Islamic school. I learnt how to read in Arabic so I could understand the Koran. I joined Islamic youth groups and was involved in many other activities that concern Islam. I used to pray often, fasted every year, and celebrated the Ramadan Celebration just as my family are doing as I write this.
God was very distant
Despite all this religious activity, God always seemed far away. I had no fear of God nor did I love Him with all my heart and soul. I didn't believe He wanted to dwell within me nor did I believe God had great plans for my life. To me, knowing God was only an after death experience. For several years I followed the belief and tradition taught to me by my family that involved Allah and Muhammad.
My life was broken
I lacked direction in my life not knowing what my destiny was. I had no purpose and I was wounded by sins I had committed. I had a broken heart and was a prisoner to evil. The things I had done and things that had been done to me? Made me long to be set free. This was one of the lowest points of my life. After growing up in Sydney (Australia), I had an instinct to return to Jakarta to start 'a new life' and to meet my mother and experience affection from her.
Giving my life to Jesus
I had lived for years far from God's presence. Sin had become a stronghold in my life and I came to question my existence of living here on earth. I realized that there was heaviness in my spirit. I had no sense of joy and felt that my life had no meaning. I was full of sorrow. I cried out to God. At first I called out to the Muslim God but shortly after that a friend spoke to me about Christianity. My friend had given his life to Jesus and he told me that there is a way out of my circumstances. I was willing to accept Jesus into my life to be the Lord over my life. This happened within a few months of returning to live in Jakarta during 1998.
Freedom for the captives
For years I hid the pain and brokenness of my life but God saw that I needed help. I needed God' to heal my broken heart that was broken because of my failures. I needed to be set free because I was a prisoner. I so desperately wanted joy, hope and purpose. I wanted to have my sins forgiven. I walked away from my sins and gave my life 100 percent over to Jesus. I reached out to the promises God speaks about in Isaiah 61. Here God promises to replace the 'ashes' of my life with a crown of beauty, replace my mourning with the oil of gladness and replace my spirit of mourning with a garment of praise. I experienced what is described in Isaiah 61. God sent His Holy Spirit to me and healed my broken heart. God set me free from the prison in which I had been held captive.
Drinking the living water
The moment I gave 100% of my life over to Jesus, He spoke so tenderly to me oft how He would inscribe his laws on my heart giving me a new heart. Through the Holy Spirit He would dwell in me and I could now draw on His strength. In John's gospel chapter 4, Jesus asks a woman from Samaria to give Him a drink of water. For me this water symbolised all the tears that had been shed from my heart because of all the disappointments in my life whether they were of my own doing or because of people and circumstances around me. Instead Jesus encouraged the Samaritan woman to drink the living water of eternal life that He provided. I saw myself handing my sorrows over to Jesus. From that moment I felt forgiven for my sins, loved and I know that I had found my Messiah, My Redeemer. I knew I was a new creation and since that encounter I have never ceased to want to know God more and more.
Standing with confidence
Today, I can tell you confidently that Jesus is alive. He is God and He is love. I experience love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control because now I belong to Christ Jesus who was crucified on the cross to pay the price for my sins. There are many things that I could share with you but let me end with a promise that God has given us all.
"For I know the thoughts that I think towards you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope" (Jeremiah 29:11).
My desire is to tell others about His love so they (like me) can experience what God speaks of in Isaiah 61.
"The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the LORD's favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion- to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the LORD for the display of his splendor" (Isaiah 61:1-3, N.I.V.).
