"Come and hear, all who fear God; and I will tell of what He has done for my soul." Psalm 66:16 NAS
As a teenager, I felt I had no testimony. You know, a religious person's story from Sunday school child to teen rebel to sex and drugs and rock and roll to bottoming out to turning back to God. There weren't any near-death experiences from which the Almighty had snatched me, or desperate pleas miraculously answered.
Young adulthood brought the realization that my having stuck with God's principles and skipping the teen rebel paragraph, had spared me several chapters of guilt and difficult consequences that many people around me were suffering. That, in fact, was part of my testimony. Yet God had still given me compassion for individuals in challenging circumstances, and He provided me with opportunities to walk with others through their tough times. That was another part of my testimony.
As time goes on my testimony--my life story--changes, because being a Christian didn't culminate in my asking Jesus into my heart. There's an ever-lengthening list of experiences and encounters in my life that are too coincidental to not have been planned by God. My testimony is a story of amazing things God has done for me.
The best part of my testimony, though, isn't just about what God does for me. The best part of my story is what He does through me. God could help other people without me, but He gives me the chance to be His delivery person. I may have limited resources, but He uses what I do have to make a positive contribution to the world. My arms get to give people His hugs. My mouth gets to offer people His encouragement.
And sometimes, people will even tell me about times that I encouraged them by living out my testimony, even back when I didn't know I had one.
"for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose." Philippians 2:13 NIV
What's your story?
Wednesday, March 11, 2015
Sunday, February 1, 2015
I Saw You Walking
"I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, entreat you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called," Ephesians 4:1 NAS
My junior year of high school, I worked afternoons in the elementary school library. Every first, second, and third grader visited the library twice a week, so they all got to know me.
I didn't have my driver's license yet, and the buses were loud and crowded, so I put miles on my high-top Reeboks. (Hey, it was 1990.) Every morning I walked several blocks to school. At noon I walked to the mini mart for lunch before walking to the elementary school for work, and walked back to the high school to catch a bus home.
A few weeks into the school year, children in the library started running up to me saying, "I saw you walking!" Before long, everywhere I went boys and girls would wave at me and say, "I saw you walking!"
I had always tried to "walk" as Jesus did (1 John 2:6) but those grade schoolers made me acutely aware of how closely our walk is observed even when we don't know we're being watched.
Years later, when my world was all babies and toddlers (and messes!), I often wondered whether it really mattered if I read my Bible that day. It's not as if a Psalm would protect me from being peed on! But I knew my little ones were watching my walk, and I if intended to bring them up in the Word, my example was important.
"Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven." Matthew 5:16 NAS
Your family, your students, your neighbors, see you walking. Your walk is significant. Your light is a beacon for those in the darkness, and your fight is an encouragement to the soldiers around you.
My junior year of high school, I worked afternoons in the elementary school library. Every first, second, and third grader visited the library twice a week, so they all got to know me.
I didn't have my driver's license yet, and the buses were loud and crowded, so I put miles on my high-top Reeboks. (Hey, it was 1990.) Every morning I walked several blocks to school. At noon I walked to the mini mart for lunch before walking to the elementary school for work, and walked back to the high school to catch a bus home.
A few weeks into the school year, children in the library started running up to me saying, "I saw you walking!" Before long, everywhere I went boys and girls would wave at me and say, "I saw you walking!"
I had always tried to "walk" as Jesus did (1 John 2:6) but those grade schoolers made me acutely aware of how closely our walk is observed even when we don't know we're being watched.
Years later, when my world was all babies and toddlers (and messes!), I often wondered whether it really mattered if I read my Bible that day. It's not as if a Psalm would protect me from being peed on! But I knew my little ones were watching my walk, and I if intended to bring them up in the Word, my example was important.
"Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven." Matthew 5:16 NAS
Your family, your students, your neighbors, see you walking. Your walk is significant. Your light is a beacon for those in the darkness, and your fight is an encouragement to the soldiers around you.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)