God sent Oscar-winning actor Matthew McConaughey three special gifts to make him come back to Him.

Before he became a Hollywood star, McConaughey used to go to church, saying he considered it important, "even if it was just for the ritual of giving an hour and a half on Sunday to yourself, to pray and to think about others," he was quoted as saying in God Reports.

But things changed when he was cast as the lead in the John Grisham-based movie "A Time to Kill" in 1996. It was his breakthrough movie that launched his Hollywood stardom.

McConaughey soon found himself starring in highly acclaimed films such as Steven Spielberg's historical drama "Amistad" (1997), the science fiction drama "Contact" (1997), the war film "U-571" (2000), "The Wedding Planner" (2001), "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days" (2003), and "The Lincoln Lawyer" (2011).

McConaughey's portrayal of a cowboy diagnosed with AIDS in "Dallas Buyers Club" won him the Academy Award and Golden Globe Award among other awards and nominations in 2014.

As he rose to fame, the actor found himself moving away from God and he stopped going to church.

But then another personal transformation came when he met Camila Alves, a Brazilian supermodel who was a devout Catholic. He fell in love and, to cut a long story short, they got married in 2012.

Just before the couple said "I do," they made a vow. "Let's go make a covenant, with you, me and God," McConaughey told his soon-to-be wife.

McConaughey even had his wedding band engraved with the words in Matthew 6:22: "The eye is the lamp of the body; so then if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light."

The 47-year-old actor and his 35-year-old wife now have three children: Vida, 7; Levi, 6; and Livingston, 4. Those were God's special gifts to McConaughey that led him to fully embrace Jesus once again.

The actor said fatherhood made him "more compassionate" and made him instinctively know what's important in life.

Having children brought McConaughey back to church, and he now attends a non-denominational church in Texas.

He caused a stir in Hollywood in March 2014 when he made his thank-you-to-God acceptance speech after winning the Oscars for Best Actor. What he said then is now considered as one of the most exceptional and inspiring speeches ever spoken in the history of the Academy Awards.

"First off I want to thank God, because He's the one I look up to," McConaughey said then. "He's graced my life with opportunities which I know are not of my hand or any other human kind. He has shown me that it's a scientific fact that gratitude reciprocates. In the words of the late Charlie Laughton, who said, 'When you got God you got a friend and that friend is you.'"

McConaughey said God to him is someone who could answer all his questions and "who has a hand in all of this miracle we call life, which I believe is a miracle."

Here is the link to the full text of McConaughey's acceptance speech at the 86th Oscars on March 2, 2014.