Jesus Gave Me Peace

With a heart longing for comfort, a young girl reached out to God and found the Friend she needed.

By Pat Penn

Around three months prior to my twelfth birthday, I came into contact with Jesus. My father had recently passed away, and it seemed that part of me had also died. There was a void in our home, and I was longing for something to comfort me. Anguish was in my heart, and then bitterness and frustration crept in. I became angry with God and started to debate whether or not there even was a God.

Longing for peace

My family belonged to a church where we attended faithfully, but we needed something more than we received there. Then my mother and sisters were invited to the Apostolic Faith Church. I am so thankful that God led us to attend. As we entered the church that Sunday morning, an old brother was preaching and his message was, “Jesus can give you peace.” How my heart was longing for peace! God spoke to my heart, and at the close of that service, I went forward to the altar of prayer. Some of the Christian people from the church gathered around me and led me to the Lord. I surrendered my life completely to Him, and in a moment He took away all the anger and bitterness and gave me peace.

I can vividly remember the Sunday about three months after I was saved when, at about 5:30 in the afternoon, the Lord sweetly sanctified me. Just one month later, He baptized me with the Holy Ghost and fire. Such a desire grew in my heart to serve Him faithfully.

Withstood ridicule

There were times in junior high school when I was ridiculed for my faith. My schoolmates teased and laughed at me concerning my salvation. I was called “saved soul,” and a “goody-goody person,” and it took a lot of grace to stand in the face of all that, but God was with me. Many times, when the girls and boys would return to school and talk about what they had done over the weekend, I spoke about what I had done: how the Lord had richly blessed my soul in prayer meetings, in Bible studies, and in other church activities.

Jesus was a Friend to me all along the way. During high school, there were proms and different worldly activities that the young people seemed to be going after, but deep within my heart I had a longing for deeper graces. He blessed me with a hunger to grow in Him, and I found He was the answer to every problem I faced. The Lord kept me true to Him through high school and college, even though it was not always easy.

The Lord gave me a Christian husband, and I am so thankful for our Christian home where we can study God’s Word together daily. God has always been there for us. Many times when our children were sick, we just prayed for them and the Lord reached down His hand and delivered them.

An amazing healing

When our last child was born, I had serious complications during the delivery. The doctors gave my baby and me only a fifty percent chance to live. That night, I remember turning my face toward the wall and crying out to Jesus. When the baby was born, she was rushed to the Intensive Care Unit and they came back and told me that they were going to have to withdraw all her blood because there were toxins in her body that were causing her to be poisoned. I went to the Lord on behalf of my baby daughter, and in less than five minutes the doctors came back and said, “Mrs. Penn, we do not have to do a blood transfusion. Something took place within the past five minutes and it will not be necessary.” I am here to say that Jesus is a healer.

When I gave the Lord my life, I promised that whatever I found to do in His service, I would be willing to do. For many years I have had the privilege to work among young people, and I have seen lives transformed. I have seen young people delivered from drugs; I have seen broken homes reunited, all because of Jesus.

Today, I am living proof that serving the Lord is a good way. I have seen Him work miracles in my life, miracles in my home, and miracles for those I have worked among. It is still my desire to reach people for Christ. I know that God can save, He can deliver, He can keep, and I want to tell that message to others. I love Him with all my heart.

Pat Penn is a minister of the Apostolic Faith Church in
Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands,
where her husband is the pastor.