Ben Brue- Humbled by His saving grace

Growing up as a pastor’s son in a Christian family, I accepted Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior at a young age. And like many other believers who come from Christian families, I was somewhat sheltered from the world outside of my church community and I accepted what I was taught at home and at Church as truth. I am very grateful for having been blessed with parents who raised me based on Biblical principles, but for me this brought on a period of serious questioning of my faith once I moved away from home.

As I started my university studies, I began to examine many of my core beliefs and came to realize that up to that point in my life, my faith was based heavily on what my parents and others close to me believed. The question of why I believed what I believed forced me to take a closer look at my faith, as I knew it was time to make it my own.

I remember having a very simple desire for quite some time: to learn how to love God and how to receive His love. But as simple of a task this seemed to be, what I knew in my mind from attending church and reading the Bible wasn’t translating to knowledge in my heart. I could recite verses that made up the foundation of my hope in Christ, but at the same time I felt fake and far away from God. As I searched deeper for the root of what was keeping me from a real, genuine relationship with God, I realized that much of my Christian life was wrongfully all about me. I was more concerned with looking like a good Christian to others than I was with my relationship with Christ. It dawned on me how similar my thoughts and deeds were to those of the Pharisees in Jesus’ day, and seeing myself in this light broke me.

God humbled me and showed me my sin and my need for His grace. He reminded me that in order to love Him and to receive His love, it was necessary for my eyes to be opened to clearly see my sinfulness, and to surrender to Him in my brokenness.

I am currently living in Bergen as I work on my Masters degree in International Business. My time here has been a great experience of both being amazed by God’s wonderful creation and also depending on Him more as I’m in a new environment away from home. I’m excited to see where God will lead me in the future, and I praise Him for everything that He has done for me and for the work He is currently doing in and through me. I am still daily humbled before God, and I’m eternally grateful for the conviction I receive from the Holy Spirit and the Bible that time and time again reminds me of the magnificence of God’s saving grace and unconditional love for me.