Jahnika Thompson was given a choice: she could either spend time in jail or get treatment for her long-term drug addiction.

It was difficult, but God helped her through the latter.

“I got plenty of sanctions, that happens when you’re not compliant with the rules and regulations,” the 35-year-old said.

“One time I was sent to jail for two weeks and towards the end of the first week I really sat down and had to analyse for myself what road I really wanted to take.

“If I didn’t grasp what they were trying to teach me in treatment then I would leave the programme and get right back to drugs.

“When you’re in sanction you have nothing to do but be in bed. I kept a journal and that night I was just going through that and started to cry because it was hurting me.

“My mind was so confused. That’s when, for the first time in a long time, I heard a very dim voice that said to get with the programme. God told me He had a lot of stuff in store for me.”

She believes it was a wake-up call.

Ms Thompson was born in Bermuda but raised in Milwaukee, where she and her family attended a baptist church.

She strayed from her faith as a teenager, got involved with the wrong crowd and gradually started using drugs. At 14 she was smoking marijuana; by her early 20s she’d moved on to ecstasy.

“In 2007, when I was 27, that’s when my life became unmanageable because I started smoking cocaine,” she said.

“I started doing it once or twice a month and then once every couple of days and eventually it was every day — all day, all night.”

It wasn’t until last year that Ms Thompson recognised the treatment programme as a blessing in disguise.

It gave her the tools she needed to overcome her addiction and additional support to get grounded in her relationship with Christ.

“I realised that God’s will for me wasn’t to become a drug addict,” she said, “but because that was the road I chose He had to turn it around and carve out a new path for me.

“While in treatment I started seeing little glimpses of what it could be if I got my life on track.

“I saw I could be successful, working hard and living a comfortable life.

“I saw myself with a husband and a family and I could see myself being happy.

“I hadn’t been happy for the last seven years of my addiction. I said to myself, ‘That is the life I want and deserve’.”

Her struggles have helped to humble her. She’s no longer afraid to ask for help when she needs it.

Prayer is also a crucial part of her life.

“I have my daily conversations with God, mornings and nights, and sometimes throughout the day,” Ms Thompson said. “I talk to Him just like I would a friend.

“Some people might think I’m talking to myself, but for me prayer is a comfort.

“I don’t really expect an answer right away, but in the evening when I’m settled I say, ‘God, what do you have to say to me?’

“That relationship is very important to me because I know if I don’t keep in line and stay on track with my higher power, things can definitely go back to chaos and confusion.”

Her advice to anyone struggling with sin or addiction is to open their heart and mind and allow God in.

“You’ll see great things come out, but you have to have the faith and truly believe — even if something doesn’t happen right then and there,” she said.

“People ask God for stuff and expect it to happen the next day. They pray, but don’t want to do their part and wonder why things don’t work out.

“Things aren’t going to happen while you sit back on the couch. That’s not how God operates.

“You have to take the first step by giving Him your heart.”