{"id":632063,"date":"2021-07-02T00:42:56","date_gmt":"2021-07-01T13:42:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hillsong.com\/collected\/?p=632063"},"modified":"2024-06-04T18:42:56","modified_gmt":"2024-06-04T07:42:56","slug":"a-newfound-sense-of-peace-and-an-excitement-about-the-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hillsong.com\/collected\/no\/blog\/2021\/07\/a-newfound-sense-of-peace-and-an-excitement-about-the-future\/","title":{"rendered":"A Story of Restoration"},"content":{"rendered":"

Beklager, denne oppf\u00f8ringen er bare tilgjengelig i% LANG:, : og %.<\/p>

<\/p>\n

\u201cI know God can change a hardened heart in just a second, and that\u2019s what happened to me.\u201d<\/em> This is my story.<\/em><\/p>\n

Tia Ifram, Amman, Jordan<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

There was one country in the world I never wanted to visit and that was Australia because I\u2019d seen posts on Instagram of weird animals and spiders. But God must have a sense of humour because it was through an Australian church that I was saved.<\/p>\n

My road back to Jesus began three years ago when I was studying at university in Canada and had slipped into depression. \u00a0It was so bad. I couldn\u2019t get out of bed, I was binge eating, and I wasn\u2019t turning up to any of my classes. And while she didn\u2019t know it at the time, my roommate was a God ordained part of my redemptive story. Every morning when the alarm went off, she sat up in bed and read her Bible. I watched her do this every day. It was like clockwork. She never missed a church service on Sundays. I wasn\u2019t like that. I was indifferent towards God \u2014 and even though I\u2019d grown up in a Christian home, I was never fully devoted; I never read my Bible, I only ever prayed The Lord\u2019s Prayer<\/em> and on Sundays, I always felt like I was being dragged to church by my parents.<\/p>\n

\"\" \"\"<\/p>\n

Fast forward to 2020 \u2014 after having returned to Jordan due to the pandemic, God turned up in an unexpected place. I was in the bathroom when a song called \u201cLiving Hope\u201d<\/em> by Phil Wickham popped up on my playlist. The first line of the song says, \u201cHow great the chasm that lay between us. How high the mountain I could not climb. In desperation, I turned to Heaven and spoke your name into the night.<\/em>\u201d I found myself weeping in the shower and crying out to God. I have no words to explain it other than I had an encounter with the Holy Spirit. A few days later, I was sitting on my balcony watching Hillsong UNITED<\/a> in a worship concert on my laptop. As soon as Taya<\/a>, Brooke<\/a> and the team started singing, I could sense the tangible presence of God. I found myself longing for the connection the Hillsong team had with God. I was hungry for it. So, I closed my eyes, said a prayer, and fully surrendered my life to Jesus.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

I know God can change a hardened heart in just a second and that\u2019s what happened to me. And then … I kid you not, I felt as though I was being scrubbed clean from the inside out. Prior to that salvation prayer, I had so many unanswered questions: Why am I here? What is my purpose? What\u2019s the point when you only die anyway? After that encounter with God, I felt as though all my questions were answered and for the first time, I had a newfound sense of peace and an excitement about the future. I am so grateful to God for never giving up on me. Since then, I have been reading my Bible every day. I have a new playlist. Instead of all the sad, introspective songs, I now listen to worship. A few days after that salvation prayer, I was watching Hillsong Church Online<\/a> and decided to join the chat. Afterwards, I visited the online welcome lounge via zoom. It was a cool experience and I got to meet lots of people from around the world who, like me, had perhaps felt disconnected. One of the girls I met was Charlotte from the USA who ended up being my online group leader. Online groups were a new thing back then and I was one of the first people to sign up. Aside from being part of this revolutionary approach to the way we do church, being part of this eclectic global community gave me a sense of belonging. I\u2019d found my people. Throughout the remainder of 2020 and 2021, I met with my group via zoom every second Sunday for an hour. Recently, I was asked to lead my own group. We are one of a growing number of online Bible study groups that meet regularly in different time zones. The girls in my group come from England, Nigeria, Mexico and Canada. I love belonging to a cause bigger than myself, and ultimately, I\u2019d like to travel to Australia to do my masters. Well… that\u2019s if I can cope with all those big spiders!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Beklager, denne oppf\u00f8ringen er bare tilgjengelig i% LANG:, : og %.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know God can change a hardened heart in just a second<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49345,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49,15414,15410],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/hillsong.com\/collected\/es\/blog\/2021\/07\/a-newfound-sense-of-peace-and-an-excitement-about-the-future\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"[:en]A Story of Restoration[:] - Collected\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"[:en]\u201cI know God can change a hardened heart in just a second[:]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/hillsong.com\/collected\/es\/blog\/2021\/07\/a-newfound-sense-of-peace-and-an-excitement-about-the-future\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Collected\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-07-01T13:42:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-06-04T07:42:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/hillsong.com\/collected\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2021\/07\/Tia-d-767x1024.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/hillsong.com\/collected\/de\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/hillsong.com\/collected\/de\/\",\"name\":\"Collected\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/hillsong.com\/collected\/de\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"no-NO\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"no-NO\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/hillsong.com\/collected\/es\/blog\/2021\/07\/a-newfound-sense-of-peace-and-an-excitement-about-the-future\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/hillsong.com\/collected\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2021\/07\/Tia-d-767x1024.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/hillsong.com\/collected\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2021\/07\/Tia-d-767x1024.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/hillsong.com\/collected\/es\/blog\/2021\/07\/a-newfound-sense-of-peace-and-an-excitement-about-the-future\/#webpage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/hillsong.com\/collected\/es\/blog\/2021\/07\/a-newfound-sense-of-peace-and-an-excitement-about-the-future\/\",\"name\":\"[:en]A Story of Restoration[:] - 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