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You are special and your story is unique! Use this article to discover your unique testimony, and be better able to share it with others.
“Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.” — Peter 3:15
“He chose to give you birth that you might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created!“ — ;
I Want to Be a Witness
The fact is you already are, and in fact a very successful witness. And you didn’t even choose to be one. You were born a witness. From the first heartbeat to the last, your life will be a witness. You have influence. You have influence because you’re alive. You certainly, continually, and constantly affect the lives of others around you. Convinced? Well, believe it or not, it’s already settled. You are already a witness…A very successful witness to:
FAILURE, FRUSTRATION, LOVE, LIFE, POWER, PEACE, GRACE, GOD, EMBARRASSMENT, EGO, SELF, SIN, HAPPINESS and HATRED. Every day, like it or not, your life is a witness to someone. You are a signpost. An advertisement. You are witnessing to others your values and what it is you really believe.
Who is Receiving the Benefit of Your Witness?
If you are a Christ follower, then Jesus Christ should benefit from your witness. To be a Christian means you received a gift, and you live out your life saying “Thank you!” The living and doing part of your witness flows out of the being part. Not the other way around. To do witnessing without first being is an exercise in futility. We must first personally experience the saving grace and rescuing power of Jesus Christ from the bondage of sin and guilt and shame and alienation and all the rest. But then, no matter how alive we are in Jesus, no matter how effective our walk, our witness is incomplete until we talk. Talk about what? Talk about ourselves, and Jesus; about the change, the difference. The story of what has and is happening in your life because of God.
It’s a Personal Story. A Powerful Story. A Contemporary Story.
Talk about it. Tell it. Your friends need to hear it. Tell it with your life. Tell it with your lips. That’s all God asks! Just tell it.
He hasn’t asked you to convert anybody. He knows you can’t. He can.
He doesn’t want you to change anybody. He knows you can’t. He can.
He doesn’t want you to save anybody. He knows you can’t . He can.
How Do You Do It?
Step 1. Put the timer on for 10 minutes, and tell your story. Let it just pour out. The good, the bad, the ugly. Start at the beginning and tell it just the way it was as far back as you can remember. On your ipad, paper or whatever – Go for it. Do it Now. This is step 1 of 3 steps.
Step 2. If Step 1 did not include what God is doing in your life right now, take 5 minutes and describe your life in Christ today. No, you’re not perfect. But honestly, what is it you want God to do and how is He working that out in ways that are satisfying to you? How has Christ been at work changing your attitudes and actions? Put it in writing now. This is step 2 of 3 steps.
Step 3. Now take one more step – 10 minutes – and reflect on those sacred times and moments in your life when Christ revealed himself to you in a saving relationship? Exactly what took place and how did it happen? When you first responded consciously to Christ. Where and how did it happen?
Put it all together and what you have is the outline of your own personal testimony:
1. Before I met Christ
2. How I met Christ
3. Since I met Christ
You want to write it all out one more time, and get it down well enough to be able to share it with someone. It’s your unique story! And there are people who need to hear you share it because they are going through the same problems too. God bless you in the sharing.
Before you share your testimony, think of the person(s) you may be sharing it with, and what part of your story may most likely connect with them. Is it the ‘before, how or since I met Christ’ part? Be prepared to put your emphasis where it will most likely connect—avoid using ‘church language’. Someone really needs to hear from you. Even if you make mistakes in the telling. It’s your story and God will use it!
Email or mail us your story, we’d love to read it.
18 Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Quotation information.
