Studying for exams by Clint O’Moore

As we all know studying for exams can be a very stressful time in one’s life, well for me it is anyway, not knowing what the outcome is going to be. And I wonder how hard the examiner is going to make the exam. Many of these thoughts start rushing through my head. When do i start studying? And what part of the book do I start with? Am I going to hit a blank in the exam?

After all of that I start thinking, have I studied all the right stuff? All of this starts sending me in a flat spin and I haven’t even opened the text book yet.

This is how my exam started. I was a big messy ball of stress and confusion. So I went to classes and we flew through all the work. This stressed me even more. I felt we didn’t really spend enough time on the chapters for me to feel confident at all. Now at this point, I must tell you that at school I was the guy that if he passed he was happy. I never really applied myself or anything more than want to pass. Studying and this learning thing was not for me.

So after all my classes I had to teach myself to learn and learn everything we had done. I was also told by the company I work for that if I failed I would have to pay for the course out of my own pocket. As one would think, this really scared me. Then I remembered a friend Bronwynn from home cell talking about her exams during one of our testimony time. She was saying how she was praying about her exams and how she was led to study certain things and those things were in her exam. So I thought to myself, will God show me what to study and how will He show me? Would I hear angels singing and have a shining light through my bedroom window on the chapters I need to learn? Yes this may sound funny but I really didn’t know what to do or expect.

It was ‘all men to battle stations’, coz I was in a state of red alert. I heard of people talking about a Heavenly peace during hard times and exams. Would I be able to experience this? I didn’t think I would. It’s only for the “MATURE” Christians, I told myself, you’re not close enough to God. These were the thoughts that ran through my head over and over again. I had all this negativity around me and in me that did not belong. So I started praying, asking the Lord for guidance and wisdom to tackle this situation I was in.

I brought it forward to friends and family and asked everyone I knew to please pray for me. I knew it would be hard and I really didn’t have any idea what to expect. As the days went on I studied as hard as I could and I prayed about it as often as I could. I squished in some study time during work hours to.

Till it came to the Wednesday before my exam. I went to home cell and again asked people to pray for me. Strangely I was not stressing at this point as I thought I would but I didn’t realise it. I was the only student in my class that was willing to write my exam as soon I was going to. The rest were going to wait at least a month after the course before they wrote.

That Friday was the day of my exam. It was to start at 11H00. Now during my school exams I would take my text books to school and study on the day. Thinking that, that would help. It never really did for me. But on this day I went to exam with nothing other than God in my heart. I had calmness before my exam I had never experienced before. I would describe it if I could, but there are no words I could find to. At the training school they told me that they were running late and do I mind waiting? I told them I didn’t mind, grabbed a cup of coffee and sat outside watching a movie on my phone. Then the examiner lady came to me and told me that their link to Microsoft had gone down and I would have to wait even longer. That too didn’t bother me. I said another little prayer while sitting outside and carried on watching my movie.

Then 12H00 came around and the examiner called me and told me that I could come and do my exam. I sat down and saw that the exam was a two and a half hour exam. A little frightened by this I clicked the screen to show me the first question. What’s this? I know this. Again a calmness that I can’t explain came over me. I went through my exam a question at a time.  Forty minutes later I was done with my exam. Everything that I had learnt I had gotten in my exam almost word for word. I was quite surprised and went to the examiner and inquired if there was any more to the exam. She told me there was not with bit of a shocked look on her face.

She went to my workstation where I had done my exam and said let us see how well you have done. The examiner printed my results and I had gotten 972 out of 1000. She congratulated me on my pass. WOW, I thought. I didn’t do that well at school. I thanked the lady and took my results and phoned and told all my friends about what had happened.

I learnt a few things from this experience and as I write my story for you I continue to learn. Letting go and giving your worries to God is one of the hardest things I have had to learn but I have been rewarded time and time again doing so. A verse from the bible keeps popping up in my life.

For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength (Philippians 4:13)

I have Christ in me and I know whatever I come to in life, God will guide me through, for He is my Light. Jesus calmed my storm and He never left my side. I just had to turn my head to see He was always there and put my faith in Him. I thank God for all His promises and the people in my life He has sent to show me His light and all His glorious works. I found that the testimony of others had help strengthen my faith in letting God do His will and that sharing Gods great works had helped me through my tough time.