Be An Influence In Your Youth
I was able to interview my friend Claire Meeks. She is someone I truly admire for her faith and willingness to trust in the Lord at such a young age. Claire is in high school and already has a faith I truly look up to. Anytime I come across disappointments in my life, her immediate response has always been “Lex, God’s got it.” She gives you this sense of confidence, that “yes, God does have it.” Why did I even question it? I wanted her to share her wisdom and confidence with you!
Claire says “Thank you for having me, I want to thank God as well. He has brought such a great amazing friend in my life, obviously Lexi, and he’s given me so much to be thankful for. I can’t credit this to myself at all. I credit it to the Lord, because He’s given me much more than I could ever hope and dream. First of all, I would like to say that nothing that I do is on my own. You know, I just follow what the Lord tells me to do. It’s a lot easier said than done, especially in high school. There is so much peer pressure, and people telling you “God’s not real,” which obviously is completely false. He is number one; He is the best.”
When asked about her background, she continues to say “I grew up in a Christian home with two amazing parents and when I turned 13, I had the chance to move to Wisconsin. I didn’t know anybody here. What brought us to Wisconsin was my Dad’s new job as a pastor. We picked up all we knew and moved to Wisconsin. This was a big point in my life where I was forced to trust God. I was pushing against God, I said “no, I’m not moving. I will move in with my friend if it comes to that.” He moved in me and turned my hardened heart saying “no, Claire, you have to trust me, and you have to be willing to move where I move you.”
When asked about her bible reference, she says “a big story that I have enjoyed from the Bible is David and Goliath, where you see, David, a little guy. He is coming to Goliath, who is a nine foot tall giant, over probably 400 pounds. He is coming to him and says in 1 Samuel 17:45 “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day, the Lord will deliver you into my hands.” Imagine a 13 year old saying that, I mean, surely he has to trust God to be able to come with such confidence. That has been such a big encouragement in my life. Just because I am little or young does not mean I can’t trust God as much as adults do. That is what I strive to do. It is what I want to do. I want to have a Faith like Lexi, she is such a big encouragement in my life.”
I responded “I want to have a faith like Claire. She reminds me again and again all glory goes to God. Any good, that anyone has ever seen in me is completely through Jesus and through his light. I love the verse 1 Timothy4:12 where it says, “Do not let anyone look down on you because you are young, but to set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity.” Proof we have that capability, even when we are young. I feel like Claire does such a good job at that. I also want to touch on the truth she shared that nothing is of our own. Remember when Jesus was talking to the disciples in John 15:5 where he says “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” Literally you guys, without Jesus in your life, He may allow you to do all these things of the world that may, on the outside, seem to give you satisfaction, but without Christ, it will never bring you fulfillment. Without Him, nothing in this life can bring you life. Only Jesus can give us life to the full.”
I asked, “Claire, do you have any tips for those in high school, middle school, or grade school on how to stand strong in their faith? Especially, when it does seem like we are surrounded by so many people that may have not grown up in Christian homes? Or maybe people that claim they do not believe in God because they cannot see Him?”
Claire’s responded, “Well, I mean, first of all, I would suggest investigating your faith. You can’t just believe something unless you know all the facts that it stands on. If you are wanting to build your faith in Christ, I would say from a non-believer’s point of view, you just have to ask these questions and find places in the Bible that builds up the strength to believe it. Going to church, reading the Bible and praying is a great place to start because the more you get into the Word and the more you pray, the more you are going to be connected to Christ. He will work in you. That is how I have been able to be such a light in my school system, and bring so many people to church with me as well.”
My response, “Yes, definitely. Relationship is huge. I have had people in my life growing up that come to me and expect this “coming to God” moment the second they walk into a church. Even though God could totally work in this way if He wanted, it’s a relationship like any relationship. Like Claire said, more you get in the word, which is God talking to you directly, the more you pray and talk to Him, the closer you will grow to Him. Get yourself in community. Community is huge. It is unexplainable how God has used people in community to talk to me and to build up my faith in Him. I love apologetics, which more or less means using logic to defend the faith. One of my favorite things to talk about when people are trying to refute God or refute his existence is to go back to basics from the beginning, because we did not create ourselves. We cannot help but ask “how did we get here?” I did not make myself. I did not make that tree outside. My advice to others is to go back to basics and logic. Yet, we need to remember logic doesn’t change hearts, right? Then you get them to start questioning and digging more. That’s the key: asking questions and genuinely loving people. When they see how we as believers love one another, as God says they will know you are my disciples by the way you love each other. 1 Peter 1:8 also says even though we can’t see God, we love Him so much. God does not have love, He literally is love. That is the defining factor in us. Claire and I are literally like sisters the way we can genuinely love each other, all because of Christ. That is the only way that you can have this genuine relationship. That in itself to me is proof of that love because my natural human heart does not create a relationship like this.”
Claire responds, “Right, very true. I mean you really just have to be willing to be used because if you’re not wanting to be used, I mean, what else are you good for? He’s been using me in Lexi’s life. He has been using me in multiple lives and He has been using Lexi in mine for goodness sake. If I didn’t have Lexi, oh my goodness, life would be so rough. If I am going through a tough time I’ll just text Lexi and we’ll just call over the phone and pray together. Once you are connected with the body it is so encouraging to walk alongside someone who also has faith like you. It is very encouraging because you guys can pray for each other and help build each other up instead of the world tearing you down.”
I responded, “If you’ve never accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior and you just feel intimidated, maybe you see these believers having these relationships and you desire to be included too. However, maybe you keep thinking “will they accept me?” Maybe you do not know where to start or even what to ask. You are still questioning if you believe in Jesus. I just want you to take it from me and Claire, we would love to talk to you! I can confidently also say anyone else that has a genuine relationship with Christ will feel the same, too. They will want you to come to them with questions. Feel free, feel open and feel invited. We want you so badly to experience this love that we have for Him, and that He has for you!
Claire’s response, “Right?! Yeah, exactly. I was scrolling on Instagram today and I saw this quote that said, “don’t allow people who miss represent Christ change your perception of Him. God is good no matter what.” You are going to come across people in your life who are not living out the Christian faith, and there will be jerks; but we are called to love them. Matthew 7:18 says, “A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit.” When we are living our life for Christ, we are going to be showing His love to everyone in our lives. When you come across someone who says they have faith but push you away, do not give up! Try to find other believers who are living out Christ’s life. Be thankful when you come across someone like that, because it is pretty rare. Another thing I found it is hard to influence the world when you look just like it. When we try to fit in with the world, we are not going to make a difference. We need to speak out and live for Christ. We need to live a Christ filled life and just ask God to work in our lives.”
My response, “I love this because it is exactly how I’ve seen Claire in my life. She makes such a difference because of her willingness to trust God in situations where I’ve struggled. God calls us to be salt and light. He says according to Matthew 5:14-16, we are the light of the world. I love how Jesus continues to say “who takes a light and puts it under a bowl?” I picture Jesus saying that almost sarcastically and it makes me laugh, because it is so true. Really, who does that? We have a light in us, and that light is Christ. We were created to let it shine! That is how we are going to influence others. People are going to notice something different about you. They are going to notice your genuineness and unconditional love. I feel like one of the biggest things that marks a believer is the way that they show grace. Because we are forgiven, we know we can forgive others. Because we have experienced forgiveness, we can share it with the same love Jesus showed us. We can genuinely love others. It amazes me how you can love someone through Jesus even when you haven’t known them that long. What amazes me even more is the ability He gives us to love our enemies. I mean, it is not our natural human instinct to want to love and pray for our enemies, right!? We would naturally want to hurt our enemies back, but then we see the way Jesus loved those crucifying Him as our example.”
Claire’s response, “I mean, Christ has given us so much. Going back to the verse where it says “A good tree cannot bear bad fruit a bad tree cannot bear good fruit” like Lexi was saying, we need to live our life for Christ because we want to be the example that other unbelievers turn to. We want them to think “wow that is who I want to be.” I do not want to live my own life. I want to turn to Christ and live for him. He has given us so much to live for and He has done way more than we could ever imagine. He died for our sins. Imagine sending your one and only Son to die for random people’s sins. That is amazing love. I cannot comprehend and I do not even have a son yet. We can’t comprehend, but we get to live in it! We get to experience it and that’s what we’re hoping you do today.”
My response, “Claire and I were hyping each other up before we were on the air for our podcast episode and you know what she says to me? I said “Claire, you know, this is your time to shine.” Of course she says “no, this is Jesus’s time to shine!” I love her humility. That is what is crazy. As God works in your life, He will do such powerful things through you, you will have the desire to give glory back to Him. When you have that relationship with Him, you see it is only through Him we can do anything. It is nothing I can do on my own. Throughout my entire life, whether a board exam, really tough relational situations that seem impossible, my sport career and more, there have been times I was the smaller girl on the court or on the field. God provided for me in ways I can’t even explain. It just humbles me because I know it’s not of me, and only of Him. God has been so good.”
Claire’s response, “Actually Lexi and I are baptism sisters. We literally got baptized on the same day, and we did not plan it. We were able to share our testimony and it was really exciting. It was right before COVID hit, which was not an accident as everyone was able to be there. It was right before my trip to Fort Wilderness, where I actually gave my life to Christ. I kept trying to do things to get myself to be good enough. At that winter camp retreat, I broke down in tears crying. I knew I couldn’t be good enough. I know I cannot get my way to heaven without Him. At that point in my life, I turned my whole life to Christ. At first I was giving my life just a little bit to Christ, but I was still trying to be good enough. We cannot measure up to get into heaven. There is nothing we can do except to trust in Christ, that He died for our sins. That is the only way we can get to heaven. There are just so many other ways that the world tries to tell you such as “oh just do good things.” That is not the case. Christ died for our sins and we need to trust in that for the forgiveness of our sins. That is the only way.”
My response, “A scripture reference to what Claire is saying is in Ephesians 2:8-9 which says “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith- and this is not from yourselves, it is a gift of God- not by works, so that no one can boast.” Then if you continue on it is so cool, because in Ephesians 2:10 it says “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” He talks about how our salvation is completely a gift and secure in Him, yet He works through this salvation to produce in us good works. We have a light that is not our own but only from Him. He loves us so much as His children, and He desires to use us and to work through us. I do not have a defining moment like Claire where I remember specifically giving my life to Christ. I know there had to be a time I turned from death to life, no doubt. I’ve had a personal relationship with Jesus since I’ve been little in the sense I recognized my sin. I recognized I needed Jesus as my Lord and Savior. I believed He died, He rose again and He is seated at the right hand of the Father today. I believed He overcame death to save us. For me, I try to pray as often as I can that I grow closer in relationship with Jesus. I pray I can become more intimate with Him, and to have that awesome confidence Claire has when any bad news comes my way. I want to have her immediate response of “God’s got this.” That is my goal and something I really look up to her for. I went on a journey reading through my Bible start to finish. When I read through the book of Acts, I got very convicted that I wanted to be baptized. I was baptized as a baby, but the more I read it seemed to me these people believed and then were baptized. I got really excited and convicted when Pastor Seth, actually Claire’s uncle, said to me how in the Middle East, if someone claims to have Christ, they might not take you as serious, but if you get baptized, they take you so serious as that is when attempts of persecution may arise. When you get baptized, they see this as you are claiming you belong with Jesus. This put a fire under me for Christ, as He is my best friend. I want to show the world I belong to Him. This was my motivation to get baptized. My testimony during my baptism was explaining my growth with Christ over the years.”
We hope you enjoyed our overview of the show! We want to remind you, Jesus loves you. We are here if you want to discuss more. We want to emphasize grace on top of grace. Grace to yourself, grace toward others and embracing the grace that Jesus gave us. Claire and I will be the first to tell you all of our flaws, that is why we need each other. That is why we need community. The enemy wants to pull relationships apart, but Jesus is here to bring unity. Seek out and find your purpose in Him starting now!
