God’s Faithfulness

By Gregory Olson

God has been faithful to me even before I began believing in Him.  There had been multiple times where I could have easily died in my teenage years (car accidents, drug overdoses, violence and crazy death-daily behavior).

God spared my life for a reason.  It wasn’t until I found myself in prison (county jail) facing 1^st degree murder charges that I finally began seeking God.  That is when the craziest thing to ever happen in my life, happened!  God very dearly began revealing Himself to me.

Soon after I confessed, repented and surrendered to God Almighty (The Father, The Son, The Holy Spirit), I realized I still have so much to learn about God, myself, and this world.  God has been so very faithful throughout my life as I have continued to learn and grow as a child of God and human being.

Even as a Christian (born again believer in Jesus Christ), I have made so many mistakes along the way.  I have struggled for years with addictions, selfishness, cussing, sexual immorality, etc.  Throughout those years of struggle, God remained faithful (2 Timothy 2:13).  So faithful, in fact, that even as I continued to disobey Him with my selfish behaviors, I could hear Him telling me that he would always love me more than I would ever comprehend and that nothing would ever be able to separate me from His love and faithfulness.

You see, God is truly faithful to His word and always will be.  The Bible says God disciplines those He loves.  That is exactly what He finally did to me after giving me chance after chance to change my behavior to what He called me to be.  He finally disciplined me in the form of allowing me to end up in Administrative Segregation for Possession of a Controlled Substance With Intent to Distribute.

This was the wake-up call I needed, and although I was convicted in court for that drug charge and given another sentence on top of my life sentence for murder, it was an absolute blessing from God.  It was God’s faithfulness showing up yet again.  At the time, of course, I didn’t really see it that way; but looking back, that is exactly what I needed to begin restoring my relationship with God.

I needed to be sober-minded.  At that point, I began trying to put God first.  I began attending chapel services and once again God’s faithfulness showed up through the brothers in Christ at Chapel.  Their example of love, service, and obedience was what I needed.  God knew what I needed to begin growing closer to Him.  I needed help from my Christian family (my brothers in prison) and His unending faithfulness provided that and so much more.

As I slowly began giving God more and more of my bad habits, I continued striving to put Him first in my life.  He continued to give me the strength to overcome my addiction to drugs and alcohol.  The process of satisfaction was unfolding in my life.

As I trusted God to help me with my character defects, He continued to faithfully strengthen me.  It became easier and easier to yield to God and be led by the Holy Spirit.  The zeal I had for God at the beginning when I first believed began being restored.

Throughout the years God has restored my whole life, relationships and my freedom.  I get released from prison in 9 days.  What seemed impossible to most was made possible by a faithful, loving God who always has my best interest in mind.

God’s faithfulness has given me the life I dreamed of having.  Only through God was it possible.  I had to be real with God and put Him absolutely first in my life (Mark 12:29-31).  He has always been faithful and true to His word and always will be (1 Thessalonians 5:23-24).