‘Clubbing, drinking, pubbing, then I tuned to Premier’ – Ken’s story

After many years away from God, drinking, taking drugs, getting into debt, and breaking up with his girlfriend, Ken was given a present that helped bring him back to God.

From my late teens into my early 20s, I just didn’t really have much time for God or the church. Looking back I was on a slippery slope: I started getting into trouble, hanging around with the wrong people, doing drugs, drinking: everything you can do to rebel. I moved further and further from the Lord. But he didn’t turn his back on me or give up on me. He would always pluck me back out of the depths.

I did have some real rough times: some crazy scrapes, brushes with death, all sorts. I was seriously ill for a while, and God, got me through all of that. Around this time I got into a relationship and eventually started a young family. So it wasn’t all bad. It was good as well.

Nonetheless, it wasn’t any less of a struggle. It was still tough. But I realised I needed to return to the Lord because I couldn’t do it anymore. I couldn’t do life on my own. Everything was going wrong, including my relationship with my kids mum. We eventually split up, I lost my job, we lost the house, the mortgage, everything basically snowballed, and my mental health suffered as a result.  But again, the Lord had his hand on me and my family.

Up until about a year ago, I was still very much a backslider. I was in the grip of the world and its ways, in fact, even deeper ingrained into the dark side of all the world has got to offer: clubbing, drinking, pubbing ,playing the field, relationship after relationship, you name it. I was in a really bad place. I was still trying to sort out my problems on my own: not even a thought about coming back to the Lord.

My youngest son started a family, and coming up to my birthday, bought me a DAB radio. This was a new digital gadget for me and flicking through the radio stations I came across a station called Premier Praise and found that they play gospel music, pray on the hour and have Bible readings. So I kept coming back to Premier Praise. I would listen mostly to the usual mainstream stations, but come back to Premier Praise. From time to time. And eventually it started to strike more and more of a chord with me.

Then one day, I just broke down, was totally convicted and just let it all go. I said, ‘Lord, if you still got a plan for me, so be it. Do what you got to do. I’m all yours. I can’t do this anymore.’

So that’s what I did. I came back to him. I’ve recommitted to him, rededicated my life. I said, ‘Lord, I’m all in 100%. Have your way with me’. And I’ve never looked back since. Over the last year, I can honestly tell you, hand on heart. I’ve never been blessed so much in my whole life. I attend a little church local to where I was living, called the Oasis. So I so thank the Lord that he never gave up on me. He still has a plan for me now. I’m all in and I’m loving every minute of it. To anyone that’s thinking about being saved, or if you’ve been saved and you’ve fallen back into the world, as I did, there’s always a chance you can come back. The Lord never gives up on you. He never turns his back.