What Is Your Testimony? – Sunday Thought For The Day

I’ver often had persons tell me that they do not know how to witness.  Each time I hear it, I tell the individual in question the same thing: “If a person is truly a born-again child of God there is no truth in that claim.”  There is no greater testimony to the glory of God than our individual personal testimony of what Christ has done in our lives from our moment of salvation.

As our son and I were talking earlier this week, the conversation as always turned to the Word of God.  In the course of same, I said to him: “Whenever you think of dad, you remember the greatest testimony of his life is/was that he backslid, but turned back to God and bathes in the warm wash of redemption every day.”  I said: “There is no greater legacy I can leave you than being restored by the blood of the lamb and serving God.”

We do not need a three-point sermon or a seven-page outline to share Christ.  As a matter of fact, I would argue those and baggage like them are the last things we need.

What we need is to know beyond any measure of doubt that we are truly saved.  We share that!  We share: we was buried dead in sin and we accepted Christ; our sins were forgiven and our life in the present was made sure in eternity.  We were no longer a slave to sinful lives.  We say: “let me tell you in a few words how God changed my life.”  If we are truly saved, we have a testimony and that testimony is what we use to witness to people.

Any person who claims to be saved, but seldom bordering on never shares what God has done for them; who rarely bordering on never speaks of how they were saved – it’s a safe bet there’s a good chance they are carnal Christians, if they are even saved.  In my thirty-five, plus years as an ordained minister, I have never found this to be untrue; never!

I can give thanks to the glory of God dealing with health issues the past nearly 8 months and how God used my not being well as opportunities to share Christ with doctors and staff.  A person with whom I’ve been friends for at least a dozen years, can share that as long as a person is alive we never stop praying for them.  She can share that her husband had many chemotherapy treatments and still refused to accept Christ as his savior even though he lived in the shadow of death for years.  Then literally, only days from the end of his life, he accepted Christ and lived the remaining hours of his life sharing his testimony with others.  People may ask, why her husband didn’t give his life to Christ sooner instead of waiting as he did not knowing if he would live?  My response would be: why did Jesus allow Lazurus to die before going to him?  The answer was, because it was “for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby.” (John 11:4 KJV)  My friend and all who were faithful in prayer not just during the years of his illness, but his life, today have a testimony to faithfulness in God and answered prayer.

We witness to what God has done for us.  If we are not saved we cannot share of salvation.  If we are empty and bitter, we cannot share of joy and the fullness of Christ in us.  If we are angry and jealous we cannot share of thankfulness and harmony.  If we are filled with hatred and resentment, we cannot share of love and contentment.  But, if we were any of those things and we were changed by Christ, we can share same and God will use it to His glory.

There’s a joy in my heart that comes from being restored that I cannot help but share.  It is the “bread of life” that sanctified my soul when I was a fallen, Christ-starved backslider.  I can sing of the Rose of Sharon…who brought me to the banqueting house and placed His banner of love over me.

But, I can neither sing nor testify of that old redemptive story unless I had been redeemed by the blood of the lamb and am surrendered to will of the Lord.  And with that said, neither can anyone else.

READ:
Psalm 86:6-13 KJV
6 Give ear, O Lord, unto my prayer; and attend to the voice of my supplications.

7 In the day of my trouble I will call upon thee: for thou wilt answer me.

8 Among the gods there is none like unto thee, O Lord; neither are there any works like unto thy works.

9 All nations whom thou hast made shall come and worship before thee, O Lord; and shall glorify thy name.

10 For thou art great, and doest wondrous things: thou art God alone.

11 Teach me thy way, O Lord; I will walk in thy truth: unite my heart to fear thy name.

12 I will praise thee, O Lord my God, with all my heart: and I will glorify thy name for evermore.

13 For great is thy mercy toward me: and thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell.