The public confession of my faith is one of the highest focal points in my life as a Christian believer. Until this day, I have always been a member of the church; how­ever, today I become a communicant mem­ber. This is a day of great joy, not only for myself but also for the parents, teachers, and ministers that have taught me over the past nineteen years. They now are seeing a part of the fruit of their many years of diligent Protestant Reformed instruction. While in their presence, I can almost sense this satisfaction arising from within them. Truly, one can see this is a day of great joy. To more fully understand this, we must look into the past to see how this all came about.

Back in the not too distant past, I was born unto God-fearing parents, which was just exactly how God predestined this to be. Shortly after I was born, I was pre­sented to my parents. After a short discus­sion with the doctors, my father and my mother commenced praying, not only thank­ing God for a healthy son: but also asking for the strength and courage they knew they would need in bringing me up in the truths of God’s Word.

They knew that this world was becoming increasingly more corrupt every day. I didn’t realize it then, but from the time I was small, prayer would become a chief part of my life. As I grew older and sat around the table at mealtime, the first word 1 was instructed to say was “Amen,” in its baby-abbreviated form.

After five years on earth, I was sent each day from my home to school. No, not any school, but to our own Protestant Reformed Christian School. Here I was compelled to memorize Bible texts and instructed in many subjects all somewhat dissimilar from each other, yet all centered around and upon God. I was also brought to church twice each Sunday for worship services and once each week for either catechism or Sunday School. God even saw to it that I might attend our own Protestant Reformed High School. For many years now, different min­isters, teachers, and the same dedicated parents have brought me up and instructed me in the paths that I should walk.

As I now reach the age of discretion, I can constantly feel Satan pressuring me to sin. I know he is constantly scheming and plotting various ways to pull me from these truths I have been instructed and brought up in. But God has seen fit to give me strength to fight him off; yet, I still fall from time to time. Now I can use that tremendous gift of prayer which God has so graciously bestowed upon his children. God, through Jesus Christ, has given me the faith to believe that I belong to Him.

Now, with no pressure from any of my instructors (ministers, teachers, and parents), I go before the congregation, in which God has given me a name and a place, to confess in their presence my faith in Christ. What joy I feel; it’s almost ecstasy; I feel on top of the whole world. Yet, I must constantly fight off the devil who has now become even more clever and de­vious than ever before. Amid my great joy, God places before me trials of my faith in addition to the devil’s temptations. I now find myself knocked from the top of the world into most lowly states. Now, more increasingly and fervently than ever, I find myself running to God in prayer, beseeching His help. His grace alone proves sufficient. He guides me through each trial, gives me strength to fight off the devil, and gives me grace to ask for forgiveness when I fail.

Truly one can see that Cod establishes His covenant in the line of continued gen­erations. Today and every day, I thank Him for my Christian upbringing, realizing that this instruction was basic to my present walk on this earth as a Christian.