Legendary TV host Kathie Lee Gifford has been a household name for decades, but despite her past successes in the media and entertainment industries, her central goal is to honor the Lord.
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“I’m a woman who believes that, if I say … I believe in a God who’s all love, I can’t say I’m a follower of Jesus if I don’t try to love like Jesus loved,” Gifford told CBN’s “Faith vs. Culture.” “And I fail at it, but that’s my intention every day of my life — ‘Jesus, let me see people the way you see them. Let me hear their words in the way You will, but let me have compassion for them.'”
The former “Live with Regis and Kathie Lee” and “Today” show host said she also asks God to help her see where others’ hurt is coming from and offered a powerful message about her purpose.
“I was not put on this earth to … get Grammy nominations and win Tonys or Emmys and all of that,” Gifford said. “It’s lovely when those kinds of things happen. … That’s just that’s not why I’m on this earth.”
She continued, “I’m on this earth to share the Good News that God loves you, whoever you are.”
Gifford has spent her life and career seeking the Lord and has increasingly turned her attention to more overtly faith-based books and films. Her recent musical film, “The Way,” is now streaming on Pure Flix.
Gifford also shared her testimony, explaining her father was Jewish. And while her family believed in God, they didn’t go to a church or synagogue. A natural entertainer, Gifford said she was always attracted to film — and it was a movie that truly introduced her to Jesus.
“I found myself in a movie theater in Annapolis, Maryland, watching a movie that the Billy Graham Organization had just put out,” she said. “It was called ‘The Restless Ones.’ … It was a story of a young girl at the cusp of womanhood who had a choice to make.”
And that choice — whether to live her life in the world or for the Lord — resonated with Gifford.
“I heard literally, maybe not audibly, but very, very powerfully, I heard Jesus [in] my little heart: ‘Kathie, I love you, and if you’ll trust Me, I’ll make something beautiful out of your life”
Gifford said she got up fast and answered the altar call, embracing Jesus and never looking back. She noted how personal God is, as He met her not at a church or a Christian camp — but through entertainment, her passion.
“I met Him where I already lived, where my dreams already lived and breathed — at a movie theater,” Gifford said. “And that’s the kind of God I want to introduce people to.”
Watch Gifford tell the full story here.
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