Saved by Love

By: Alexis Cathcart
Edited by: Summer Neal

The opposite of addiction is connection.

All I knew about love was fornication, illegal substances, and making music.

I have been loved back to life after over twenty years in addiction and reckless lifestyle. I was once an intravenous drug user, prostitute, thief, and still to this day a felon.

After a long hard road, I was introduced to someone that worked with me in the jail but after I was released, I went into a program where I continued to act out on old behavior.

After my discharge, I was able to get into Our House of Restoration.

Looking back, I can see it was all in God’s plan because He knew I  was supposed to be at Our House of Restoration.

When I entered OHOR, my clean date was saved but little did I know that my soul was what was about to be saved as well.

I grew up in a family where all of our issues were meant to be kept in the family. It was dysfunctional.

There were sporadic times of going to church. Sometimes would say I lived at the church. But the whole family was never on board at any one time. With the exception of one moment, I never felt anything significant. 

Due to childhood trauma and drug use, many my memories are blacked out but I do remember around 11 years old, at the little church we went to, my hands were raised and a lady was speaking a language I didn’t understand. She was speaking in tongues.

Then she blurted out to me that I was a prophet and that I would do great things. And that night I also spoke in tongues.

I wish I could say that after that night I started my relationship with Jesus but soon thereafter is when I began my relationship with prescription drugs and boys.

The enemy knew I was meant for great things. It was clear to him that I would do great things for God and he couldn’t let that happen.

Ever since then I was with one boy after the other. I took one drug after the other. One really bad song after the other. The trajectory of my life went away from Jesus. 

I have three kids that I have hurt immeasurably with my addiction. Their fathers have hurt them, too.

All connected to a lack of relationship with God and drug addiction.

Now, I am able to be the light to others after living in so much darkness.

My life has been dark for so long. True enough, there were periods of light here and there; all in times that I was diligently seeking a relationship Jesus. 

My name (Alexis) means, “defender and protector.”

I’ve always felt like I have protective instincts. I stick up for the little guy. I let people know when I feel like they are degrading others or speaking death and not life into someone.

But I’m learning that I’ve never felt protected. And I’ve never really protected anyone unless I’ve prayed for them.

I’ve never successfully protected any of my children. But God stepped in and became mine and my children’s ultimate protector.

God loves me and my children. He has shown me that the best thing that I can do to protect them is to point them to the love of Jesus Christ. A love that I have finally been able to find. 

At Faith Tabernacle, I have found the church family I have always been looking for but most of all, I’ve found my connection to Jesus. My ever present help in my times of trouble and the lover of my soul.

Words cannot express what I have been given at Faith Tabernacle. It came after a time where I was so unbelievably broken that I saw no light at the end of the tunnel. 

I’ve always had a God-shaped hole. Always. There has never been a time in my life that I do not remember acting out in one way or another. It wasn’t until the Holy Ghost stepped in that I was able to change.

I received the Holy Ghost & was baptized in Jesus name for the remissions of my sins on January 9, 2022.

I’ve been baptized at least four times prior to that. Never did I feel such a freedom that I could have everything God had for me.

Late one night after class during earnest prayer with two believing ladies, the spirit of lust was removed from me. It was an immediate shift. All of the sudden, it was all about Jesus. 

I was hungry for all of Him. I was at the church every time the doors were opened, soaking in all the love Jesus had for me. I could tangibly feel it, it was a warmth I had never known.

Almost immediately these little directions would pop in my head, “pick that up”, “go talk to that person”, “hug this person.” Then, I was convicted to start pursuing holiness.

I made the decision to only listen to Christian music. This turned around my mental processes and suddenly, the old music I listened to became nails on a chalk board; I couldn’t bear to listen to it.

After a man made a series of (what he thought were compliments) vulgar remarks to me on my job, I had a personal conviction to wear only skirts. So I donated all of my pants (pajama pants included) to the clothes closet.

My workplace is a melting pot of lost souls; people who may only see Jesus through me. I fought against going to work here but it seems that it’s where God needs me.

Lexie was the person that I was before I received the Holy Ghost. She would have loved the attention and reveled in “compliments” from anyone. But God had done such a work in me, that Lexie was dead. Alexis is a new creature in Christ and it shows in my heart and now I’m a walking billboard for Jesus’ mercy. 

God gets the glory in everything I do. Even things as little as getting to work on time. Some would argue that would be just an act of discipline or self-preservation. But I know that God is the reason that I am able to successfully accomplish anything that I do.

Without God, I am nothing. Without Him I was a drug-addicted, prostitute who had no relationship with her children or her family.

Jesus is the reason for all things good in my life.

When life isn’t going like I think it should, I know to turn to Him. His perfect will in my life is all that I seek now. I know God wants things to be so much better for me than I could ever dream of them being. If He never blessed me with another thing, I would praise Him.

God has restored me to sanity and given me a church family and a family of origin that loved me back to life.

Come and see what all the fuss is about and let Jesus love on you at Faith Tabernacle. Attending this church has been such a vehicle of change in my life.

I know that what God did for me, He can and will do for you too! 

I love Jesus.

I love myself.

I love my kids.

I love my family.

I love my church family.

I love the director of my transitional house and her husband. They have been like parents to me in many ways.

I love the girls in the transitional house, even though some days I don’t want to.

Giving my life to Jesus and being filled with the Holy Ghost has done all of that for me. With Him, all things are possible.

I have been made new.

I am no longer an addict.

I am a person in recovery.

No longer am I bound by the chains of addiction, fornication, or nasty music.

I have truly found a new way to live.

I have found God’s gift of mercy.

I have found love. You can too! It’s one prayer away. Let God do it for you too!