Testify

"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?