As we go through this Knowing Jesus series, we are interviewing some people at our church and we are asking them a simple question: How did you come to know Jesus? I’m excited that these videos are an opportunity for some of us to talk about our faith in an autobiographical way. I’m hoping that these short videos will inspire you to think about how you would answer the question: How did you come to know Jesus?

This is a young lady named Anna Farris, who grew up in our church:

Anna knows Jesus because He has delivered her. He has won victory in her life.

As she says, He delivered her once and for all when she went down into the waters of baptism and she received the promised gifts of forgiveness and the Holy Spirit. And Jesus continues to deliver Anna, particularly as she was in the throes of depression and anxiety as she battled a chronic illness.

The name “Jesus” is a personal name — and as you can tell, it is very personal for Anna. By my count, she says the name of Jesus eight times in a little over a minute. I love that!

Anna says it herself: she came to know Jesus at a young age. She grew up in a home where Jesus was lifted up and praised. Her parents are some of the most servant-hearted people I know. John has been one of our Children’s Ministry deacons for many years and Nancy works on our ministry staff in the church office. Anna’s grandmother was Miss Mary Ann Mercer. For 40 years, Miss Mary Ann taught the Sunday morning baby class in our church. There are literally hundreds of sons and daughters of this church whose first introduction to Sunday school was in Miss Mary Ann’s Bible class. I’m willing to bet that nobody in history has led more children in “pat the Bible” than Miss Mary Ann!

So no doubt Anna came to know Jesus through the loving witness of her family. But I hear Anna saying that Jesus really became personal to her through suffering. Through chronic illness. Jesus became personal to her when she cried out for deliverance. So when we asked her the question, How did you come to know Jesus?, she can’t help but mention the people who taught her about Jesus but also her own personal encounter with Jesus as the One who delivered her, the One who fought her battles for her.

Anna’s story reveals the power of this personal name — the name of Jesus.

What about you? Do you know the name of Jesus in a personal way? Has He saved you, delivered you, fought your battles for you?

My wish for you is that you would come to know Jesus in the same deeply personal way that Anna knows Him.