“We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands.” – 1 John 2:3
By the time she was 24 years old, Dana Bryant was a bank robber, a meth addict and one of the most wanted criminals in northern California.
Dana says, "I knew that if I got caught that I would be going away to prison for a very long time. I didn't want to get caught, and I didn't want to live."
Raised in a middle class home, Dana says she felt worthless because she never felt she could measure up to her mother's expectations. In high school, she found that partying helped her cope.
"I became the one that drank the most at a party," says Dana. "I was the one that made a fool out of myself more than most. I eventually was the one that was going home with someone else."
After high school, Dana met a man she thought would fill every void she had. Soon, she discovered the love of her life had a violent temper.
Dana remembers, "He slammed me against the wall, choked me until I nearly passed out."
Eventually, Dana had a child with her boyfriend. But soon afterward, she developed another addiction - to meth. Unable to look after her child, Dana put her daughter in her mother's care. By now, she had lost her job and had no money. That's when Dana started robbing banks. She used a fake gun and each time, she played the victim and told the tellers that someone else was forcing her to rob them.
She was eventually caught and Dana remembers, "All the police had surrounded me. I remember getting in the back of the car cuffed, and being grateful. I had a cognitive thought of, 'Finally, it's over.' and I didn't care that I was going to prison."
Dana was charged with 9 counts of bank robbery and possession of a weapon. She faced 25 years in a women's federal prison. Then, on sentencing day the judge called her forward.
"He said. 'A very bad thing happened to a good girl,'" says Dana. "And he said, 'I'm going to give you a chance.' "He looked me in the eye, 'I'm going to send you to a program. I think you need help.' And because of that I only got a 5 year sentence."
After she went to a court ordered rehab program, she started serving her sentence. Dana went to a chapel service and she became a Christian.
Dana served out her sentence, and said during that time, God took away her addiction to meth and gambling. After her release she married a Christian man and they're raising her daughter and their two other children. They reach out to their community through their ministry called, 'Crossing the Jordan.' Dana shares with others that God is truly a God of a second chance.
We are all naturally born rebels. It takes a supernatural rebirth through Jesus Christ to be obedient to the Lord. Today in prayer, thank the Lord for His goodness and His commandments and seek to follow Him with all of your heart.
"The secret of true obedience is the clear and close personal relationship to God. All our attempts after full obedience will be failures until we get access to his abiding fellowship. It is God's holy presence consciously abiding with us that keeps us from disobeying Him. I must consciously include the Lord in every thought, activity, and conversation until the habit is established." - Andrew Murray
God’s Word: “If you love me, you will obey what I command.” – John 14:15
By Peter Kennedy, Copyright 2014, Devotional E-Mail
DEVOTIONS IN LETTERS OF JOHN