Testimony

Your testimony is an outline of your experiences and how God has used them for HIS plan of salvation for this world. Make this one life count!

In 2013, I wrote my first testimony. As I shared my story, my life was outlined with experiences that had shaped me. How actions of others had shaped my thoughts of myself and led me down a wide path of sin, shame and guilt. It was a story of how I had overcome with a splashing of how God had played a part.

This picture of the rocky covered grounds meeting up with the softness of the waters just to find that once in those waters they too can become rough, tossing me around, perfectly represents my life. As I’m sure that most of you could say it represents yours too.

Testimonies are funny things. They never stop evolving because life never stops evolving. When I wrote my first testimony, it was like a badge of victimization and shame. Writing my story was a way to break down those barriers of anger, guilt and shame that I so long had buried within. Now several different versions and 6 years later, it has become a badge of honor to me. A way to express the gratitude I have to God for redeeming me, rescuing me and releasing me from my past.

Here’s a snippet …..

I’m here to share with you how Jesus made this “broken life”, BEAUTIFUL in spite of myself. I just thought I had worked through it but God had so much more he wanted to reveal to me. This is a story of love, grace, redemption and restoration. Jude 1 “keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life” and Romans 3 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus”.

There are so many experiences that shaped me, that played a part in my life testimony and ultimately led me down a path to a closer walk with God, a greater appreciation for what Jesus did for me and the role that the Holy Spirit plays in my life today. My experiences may have shaped me but I know WHO formed me and that knowledge is what gives me hope and smooths out the rocky and turbulent parts.

Psalm 139:13 For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.

I was a mess. I didn’t realize it till I was hit head on with so much pain that God seemed to be my last resort. I hate to say He was my last resort but I wouldn’t be honest if I said He was my first. I learned early on that I could sway the direction of the wind by acting certain ways or saying certain words. I felt like I could conquer the world, that is called codependency and I seemed to be a master at it. In my world, that was being the master at fixing everyone else’s problems while mine were imploding around me. Till I finally couldn’t stand on my own 2 feet and allowed God to hold me up. I dropped all that baggage that I’d been carrying around, some mine and some others, and allowed HIM to free me of it.

2 Corinthians 12:9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

Here’s a snippet…….

I gave up the fight in 2005! I knew for years that my God was there
but I never reached out for Him. So I boldly called out…… ”God, I’m handing this over to you for 1 year, then I’m done”. I was ready to meet the God that Hagar speaks of in Genesis, “The God who sees me”. As that year passed, I saw change in me, change in my husband, change in my children and it gave me hope. Hope to hold on.

This one life of mine has had it’s bumpy and winding roads but it has also shown me who God created me to be. He was just waiting for me to ask Him to show me. I can boast now all the more gladly of my weaknesses, because I know that the power of Christ rests upon me.

1 Peter 5:10 And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.

So I type all this, to let you know that when I sought after HIM, He was found and I learned that His eyes always saw me, just as He is the God that sees you too!

Here’s a snippet……

Never underestimate, NEVER UNDERESTIMATE, what He can do through you!

Use your story, your experiences, your testimony to bring HIM glory.

Lord, thank you for allowing me to walk this journey and to share this journey with others so one day we will be with You.