Because God’s an author, stories are not just our thing, but his thing. It’s his idea to communicate, to move hearts, to convict sinners, to reveal truth. Read the Bible! Study Church history! Ask someone who loves Jesus about God in their lives! You’ll hear a story. We love telling stories because God does!
When we tell our personal “God-Stories” we give other people a chance to hear about the Author or our life, but the Divine Author of all life – including theirs! By the power of the Holy Spirit, our stories of what God has done in our lives can open someone else up to the larger story of Jesus Christ that they are invited to enter into and live out of. This is what we call a Testimony. A testimony does two things no matter how it’s done: One, it reveals God’s initiative to love us to himself, and two, it reveals our response to his goodness. The Latin root testamentum means “covenant”.
Covenants in the bible are super important: they are a series of family making rituals that God invites his people to enter into throughout the Old Testament. These family forming bonds begin in the Old Testament and find their fulfilment in Jesus who invites all humanity into a final and never-ending Covenant. This New Covenants reveals the mystery of God’s love and, the truth of sin that separates us from that love. The New Covenant is how God invites us to turn away from living as orphans and enter into His Kingdom-family-Church and learn and grow in our new identity as beloved children forever and ever. Amen!
Yup. That’s the perfect story. That’s the possible happy ending that’s open to everyone. Our testimony is a way that this happy ending breaks into the here and now and changes everything. A testimony is evidence of what God has done to win us over, how we responded to His presence, and as a result, how we’ve entered in – for the first time or more deeply—into the intimate covenant-family relationship God has with his Church.
Our testimony can remove Barriers that keep people from saying yes to God! Sharing our story in authentic and simple ways removes barriers that a lot of people have about “churchy” people and builds bridges of trust with people. Our testimony also gives examples of what a conversion looks like that people really need. They need to hear and see what it looks like to respond to Jesus as a disciple. Our stories can reveal the joy and peace that everyday people like you and I experience when they let God do what he does best – save!
Our testimony of a “one big way” or of the “many small ways” in which God has won us over ultimately tells our audience this: if God did it once in my life, he’s ready, he’s willing, and able to do it again in yours!