Little Girl Lost No More: What If Jesus Has Always Loved Me?

He Has! Marty Davis’s Story

What is it like to think you are a little girl lost in your Christian faith journey, only to realize after many years unraveling religion, that you are actually being found, and your arduous, sometimes painful journey is all worth it! And as you emerge from the doctrines of fear and bondage of religion dogma, you realize one simple powerful truth—you have always been known and are deeply loved by Jesus.

It isn’t always a certainty what is happening. And have you ever wondered if that pain you’ve walked through—the dysfunction, the loneliness, the long nights wrestling with God—is actually leading anywhere good? What if the very thing that seemed like it broke you is the very thing that will wake you up?

That’s the thread running through the story of someone who once felt like a little girl lost but now stands in the light of being found. And whether you realize it or not, her story might just be yours too.

The Wounds We Don’t Choose

She grew up in a spiritual blender—Assembly of God, Charismatic, Bible Church, Baptist. A swirl of voices, rules, and expectations. Never really knowing peace or believing she was safe. None of these environments prepared her nor gave her refuge for the chaos at home. An alcoholic father with a raging temper. Later, that same father battling depression so heavy it landed him in a hospital. It is scary.

When your childhood is wrapped in both religious rigidity and emotional instability, you learn in this sort of trauma and chaos early on how to survive—but not how to live free.

You might know that feeling too. You might have grown up learning about God in an atmosphere consumed with religious duty, fear-based legalism, feeling far away from being loved by God. You might have become a master of appearing fine while carrying silent sadness inside a world that is supposed to be life-giving. But Jesus loved me too much to leave me there.

The Cost of the Climb

Marty’s journey began to take some turns, but didn’t turn on a single moment. It wasn’t a neat, bow-wrapped testimony of “one day everything changed.” It was jagged. Slow. Marked by many small, sacred awakenings. Awakening to the truth of God’s goodness, and how deeply He loved he, and always had.

But when Marty’s story began to change, when religion and all its trappings begin to fall off her life; because God loves us far too much, it doesn’t come without loss or grief. There were deep costs along the way—especially the cost of isolation. She shares honestly:
“Isolation from people you’ve known your entire life will cost you, but it is worth the journey.”

Maybe you’ve felt that too. When you start asking deeper questions, when you start unraveling old beliefs or stepping away from systems that no longer hold you, you will lose some people. This is a given. It’s lonely, but it’s not the end of the story.

The Breaking That Leads to Belonging

Over time, something dramatic, yet freeing happened—not in the external performance she once lived, but in the deep heart-space where it actually matters.

Today, she now knows something she never knew in all the church services and childhood prayers:
“I’m loved and God is infinitely interested and in love with me. Jesus is my friend always.”

That’s not a theological theory. That’s a hard-earned reality. And it’s the kind of knowing that can only come on the other side of wrestling, loss, and learning to let go.

She carries some sadness still—because being human is messy. But she is free. Jesus Christ freed her. It is for freedom after all that He came to set us all free. And what if Jesus always loved her. Well He did.

And if she had one sentence to say to you, one thing she could pass on like a torch in the dark, it would be this:

“It is all worth it. To know Him.” 

Your Journey Is Calling

Her story isn’t a tidy how-to guide. It’s an invitation. It’s a reminder that the heartbreak you’ve walked through, the religious beliefs you’ve outgrown, the people you’ve lost—it can all be part of the road to authentic freedom. Jesus wants me free from the “little lost girl” I once thought I was, that identity once grafted into  my psyche through modern religiosity and the hurts that life can dish you at times. But reflectively she encourages everyone today, it is all worth it. 

Maybe today’s the day you stop running from the questions, the chaos, the hurt or pain: and lean in, freefall into the journey. Maybe today’s the day you allow yourself to believe what Jesus is teaching us all, that you are deeply, infinitely loved.

Like me, you don’t have to feel lost.

Take a moment today and ask yourself an important question:

What if everything I’ve walked through is leading me—not away from God—but right into the arms of love?

Ask Jesus what He thinks. He is not hiding and will reveal the truth as He did me.

Because it’s all worth it. To know Him.

Inspired by Marty’s Story? We think you will enjoy this Rethinking God with Tacos [Join the Facebook group -> HERE ] liberating discussion between GAN TV hosts Jason Clark, John Crowder (The Jesus Trip – check it out HERE) and Bill Vanderbush (Unveiled Horizon- check it out HERE )

Editorial Note: GAN TV believes that your story matters. This article is part of a series sharing many testimonies about the many believers who have rediscovered Jesus Christ, the gospel of grace and freedom after being held in the bondage of religion; some for many years. Your story matters. If you would like to tell your story and have it considered for publishing, please email Lisa@Gantv.com.