Testimony Tuesday: A life built on prayer and ready for service

By Bella Agnello

Not many people remember the day of their salvation. Reese Hurt, a senior Biblical Studies major at Cedarville University, remembers hers.

On Sunday, Oct. 2, 2016, Hurt had just finished leading kids worship when her dad pulled her away to sit in “big church.”

Hurt can still remember walking into the auditorium.

“I can close my eyes and remember walking down the aisle of that room, which is just very kind for the Lord to give me,” Hurt said. “It’s not just this random thing that happened.”

The pastor preached on Mark 4, Jesus’ parable about the four soils. Hurt did not listen to most of the message. At the same time, her mom was praying for the Holy Spirit to move in her heart.

As the pastor wrapped up the sermon, Hurt tuned in, and the Holy Spirit started to work in her.

“It was like [my ears] were deaf before, and then all of a sudden the gospel was clearly proclaimed, and I felt this physical weight on my chest,” Hurt said. “Where I knew before that I was a sinner [who] needed to be saved, I felt the actual reality of that and the weight of my sin. I really feel like the Holy Spirit was moving in my heart.”

That day, Hurt made the decision to follow Christ for eternity. The next several years were filled with baby steps as she let the gospel deepen her dependence on him. In 2019, he led her dad to pastor a church plant, which led her into a season of trials.

“I realized later that I definitely had spiritual ties to that church because that’s where I became a believer and I had a lot of people pouring into me,” Hurt said. “It was hard to move from that really rich community to a community that needed to be watered.”

Being a pastor’s kid, Hurt could not ask anyone outside of the family for help or comfort as she processed the difficulties of ministry. She struggled in private until she attended a winter youth retreat in February 2020. The theme for the year was “Seek,” which comes from Psalm 27:8. The verse says, “You have said, ‘Seek my face.’ My heart says to you, ‘Your face, LORD, do I seek.’”

God opened up Hurt’s heart to the sweetness of prayer. Though she could not talk to many people about her struggles, she could seek God’s face and talk to him about anything she wanted.

Just as he did during the winter retreat, God is still drawing Hurt deeper into the sweetness of prayer. Now, she is learning to find abundant joy in seeking the Lord on behalf of others.

“There’s this beautiful, beautiful element when you take other people’s requests to the Lord,” Hurt said. “It helps you become self forgetful in the process and become more reliant upon God because he works in miraculous ways.”

She sees prayer as an essential way to love and abide in the body of Christ.

“We were created to live in this community and to seek God together,” Hurt said. “I just walk away with so much more joy and a lesser view of myself because I’m praying for all of these people.”

Since coming to this church plant, God has filled Hurt’s life with a rich community of people who have invested in her and loved her well. Though she did not fully comprehend it at first, God was placing these people in her life to sow in her a desire to enter into full time ministry.

For the last three years, God has placed Hurt under the discipleship of the children’s director at her church. Learning from her has given her a richer perspective on how to approach children’s ministry.

“It’s basically a ministry to unbelievers because a lot of young children are not saved,” Hurt said. “A lot of children either don’t have a full grasp of the gospel or aren’t saved, and so you get to just pour into their lives. When I was in children’s ministry, it was a lot of planting seeds […] So that’s what I want to be able to do for others.”

Hurt knows that children’s ministry will be difficult at times. Yet, she looks forward to loving children well and pointing them to the hope she found in the gospel.

“God might not be bringing the growth yet in that specific child’s life that we’re discouraged about, but [we cling] to the hope of the gospel and the truth of the gospel,” Hurt said. “Who am I to be discouraged? It’s not what I can do, and I need to be faithful to the ministry that God has given me.”

Because her children’s director also oversees biblical counseling, Hurt has learned how to care for the whole family through working in children’s ministry.

“You get to bless the parents through caring for the kids and you also get really cool interactions with the parents,” Hurt said. “I get to look at them and be like, ‘She did so well on this,’ or, ‘This kid had this really sweet question today that blessed me, and I hope it blesses you.’”

As God has loved Hurt through the sweetness of prayer and the intentionality of discipleship, God is continuing to teach her how to love his body well through prayer and service. As she reflects on her past, savors her present and looks forward to her future, she delights in the joy of seeking God’s face and pouring into the church with the love of Christ.

“I have had the blessing of getting to see God move in a lot of ways, specifically through answering prayer,” Hurt said. “Throughout my testimony, the Lord has reminded me to be steadfast in prayer and to be steadfast in being in the Word, because he will answer.”

Bella Agnello is a senior Broadcasting, Digital Media and Journalism major with a concentration in Journalism. She enjoys antiquing, listening to records and reading classic Russian literature in her spare time.