How can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? (Rom. 10:14)

Before becoming a Christian, I really felt that my life didn’t have any meaning. I was searching for myself, my identity; I didn’t know what to do with my life, and most of all, I was afraid. I didn’t have self-confidence, and I almost always felt excluded and rejected. And then, I simply had to grow up. In order to grow up you must know what you want, find a meaning in life. I didn’t find any and was constantly changing my mind about which studies and future profession to pursue.

Just a few months ago, I could not have imagined a God who rules the universe and that my will could be under the control of a higher being. I felt condemned to live without any guidance and believed that after death there’s nothing. I had vaguely been told about God when I was younger, but so vaguely that I did not know Jesus. I concluded that God was too far away and abstract and that he couldn’t exist. I had totally rejected the idea of believing in him. How should one believe in this distant and obscure figure if one has never been in contact with him, and if there’s no proof of his existence? I simply did not understand this idea of faith, and anyway I’d never opened a Bible in my life. For me, it was an intimidating and austere book.

But this has changed. I’ve been studying English at the university in Paris for the past three years, and last year, I took a course titled: “The Bible in English literature”. That year I started going to the local IFES group (Groupes Bibliques Universitaires in France). A friend of mine had told me about it, and explained that the Bible was studied there. I went because I wanted to learn more about this book I knew nothing about, particularly in view of my university course.

It’s one of the best things that ever happened to me. First, because the people I met there are now dear friends, but also because that is where I heard about Jesus for the first time. I felt right at home after only a few weeks, but I did not yet believe in God.

For that to happen, I had to attend a weekend organized by IFES in February 2011. That’s when I truly realized that God was the missing piece in my life. I think that knowing Jesus more and more through the IFES’s Bible studies is what helped me most to step out to God in faith and to finally believe in Him.

Sophie , French student