By Elvira Bujanda

When I was a young child my first awareness of God came from my parents and their teachings from the Catholic religion. My father spoke of God and His Son Jesus, right and wrong, good and bad, and told us God wants us to be good to one another. I watched my mother make the sign of the cross as she prayed, lighting candles and holding the rosary in her hands. I saw her faithful prayers to God carry us through the hardships of growing up with an alcoholic father and developed an interest in prayer. I knew my mother’s prayers came from the whole heart, out of a true love for God.

In Mark 11:24 Jesus said, “I tell you whatever you ask for in prayer believing that you receive it, it will be yours.” When I started school at age six I also took church classes to learn more of God and His Son Jesus. I learned that Jesus had died on the cross for our sin because God the Father loved us so much (Romans 5:8); that He had given us the Holy Spirit to help and comfort us (John 16:13); that it was Jesus who taught us how to pray by giving us the Lord’s prayer in Matthew 6:9-13. With the heart of a child, I prayed the rosary every day with a desire for more of God and His Son Jesus. When I attended mass there were songs of praise, prayers for needs and lots of standing, sitting, and kneeling. Yet my heart continued to cry out for more and I wasn’t satisfied. But Psalm 37:4 says “Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.”

The day I received my first holy communion at age ten, my mind and heart were lifted to God and there was a feeling inside me that I couldn’t explain. At age sixteen, I attended church classes to learn how to teach young children about God and realized there was a stirring inside me to know God better and to find out what He desired of me. I knew my desires must match His. Into my adulthood, I still had a burning desire to know who God really was. To love God without understanding is a shallow and unsatisfying experience. I tried to please God but I just had an empty feeling within me demanding to be filled. It cried out to be satisfied and wouldn’t rest until it was relieved.

On August 1, 1993, I came to a Sunday night service at The Door Church in Tucson, and as I knelt down to pray at the altar, I knew my flesh needed to be changed; I could find the power to give up old habits and ways because “They that are in the flesh cannot please God” (Romans 8:10). It was as though I had become that child once more and that feeling I couldn’t explain was all over me again, lifting me up to God. I knew it didn’t come from anything I did but from God Himself making me clean before His throne. “Therefore being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand and rejoice in the hope of the glory of God” (Romans 5:1-2). I’m so thankful to be part of this church family where I’ve had opportunities to grow in His truth for the last sixteen years.

Our journey in eternal salvation begins with the heart of a child. Jesus said, “Assuredly I say unto you, unless you are converted and become as little children you shall by no means enter the Kingdom of heaven. Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matthew 18:3-4). With the trusting heart of a child, I can now understand that to love God with all my heart is to have my every desire satisfied by Jesus.