For thought and meditation

[rl69]

So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God."

—Romans 10:17

Everyone likes to hear a good story—especially a true story. And when it comes to sharing your faith, one of the most effective tools in your evangelistic toolbox is your personal testimony.

A testimony is a powerful bridge builder. It’s a way to connect with your listener so that he or she can see how you came to be who you are and why you believe what you believe. It’s a way to engage people, build a bridge, and help them see how they can come to faith as well.

Another great thing about sharing your testimony is that you can indirectly preach the gospel. You can say something like, “Before I was a Christian, my life was going nowhere. There was an emptiness in it, and I wondered what was wrong, what was missing. But one day, I went to a church service and heard the pastor say . . .”

Or you might say, “Someone came up to me and shared these words with me. . . . I heard it, I believed it, and I responded to it.”

You can actually share the gospel while you are telling your own story. And when you’re done, you can say, “What do you think about that? Have you ever heard that before? Have you ever considered who Jesus is?”

What’s your story? Everyone has one. Everyone has a testimony, and every testimony is valid.

When you get down to it, every Christian’s testimony is essentially the same. We were all lost. We were all separated from God. We were all guilty and lonely and afraid to die. And we were all on our way to Hell. But Jesus Christ, in His grace, intervened in our lives and transformed us. That is your story, and it is worth telling.

[Blackwater]

"When you get down to it, every Christian’s testimony is essentially the same. We were all lost. We were all separated from God. We were all guilty and lonely and afraid to die. And we were all on our way to Hell. But Jesus Christ, in His grace, intervened in our lives and transformed us. That is your story, and it is worth telling."

What a wonderful and accurate observation! Thanks. And indeed, we DO all have our own unique and individual stories. My own is pretty simple, really. Was raised by a good Mom and Dad, and introduced early on to the concept of God by my Mom, who'd learned to rely on her own faith for much of her life. Was taken to church, and I simply listened and thought about what I heard. The rest was like water flowing downhill, really. At least until I attained the "age of temptation," and began learning lots of worldly stuff. I tried to include as much worldly stuff into my life as I thought I could "get away with," but it doesn't take long to find that this just isn't very satisfying in the end, and one MUST make a choice. So .... I just did, albeit rather slow and grudgingly for the first part of it. The rest was mostly learning with experience and with increasing understanding of God's Holy Word. My progress was very slow, largely because I'd by then internalized many "worldly" perspectives that just never seemed to really work with the Word. But even a blind hog finds an acorn now and then if he just keeps rooting, and I never quit seeking more and greater understanding, even when I wondered if I COULD understand more! It's taken me a lifetime to reach a point more or less where I've always longed to be, but thank God Almighty He let me reach this point. And I'll always have yet more and more wondrous things to learn, I know.

God is SO good to us, even when we are not his best "pupils!" Could there be a more wondrous and loving God than ours????