3/11/18 Romans 11:33 - 12:2
Wow! If you have the Wow! factor when you think about God and what He has done for you through Jesus (and for all of mankind), you’re a believer, as the Bible would describe a believer.
If you’re not Wowed by Jesus, you might believe God exists, but you don’t believe in Him.
I think that is a fair conclusion of the biblical account.
Yesterday, we were blessed to hear five amazing testimonies of the people who were baptized and how they’ve been wowed by God. They clearly believe in Him or trust in Him for their salvation. And their stories are nothing short of scores and scripts that only God could orchestrate. These are testimonies that direct glory right back at God. God was at work in these five people’s lives and they responded. No one of us could have written a prescriptive list of advice for them to take that would have led them to the wholeness they now have. To hear their stories, that would seem impossible. But with God nothing is impossible if we trust Him.
I don’t doubt that God is at work just as thoroughly and personally in your life. Have you seen it? More importantly, have you acknowledged it by responding to Him?
That’s the beginning of and the whole point of a testimony: recounting how you noticed God at work in your life and then how trusting Him has changed you.
I believe God reaches out to us by sending people into our lives, giving us signs, bringing things to our attention, speaking to us quietly in our thoughts, arranging circumstances, rearranging circumstances… using tattoos, music, sunsets, storms, art, His word, our siblings, our parents, our friends, even our enemies, gentle rains, desert times, loss, great gain, and the list could go on, and on, and on. The question is, do you see it? Do you acknowledge it? Do you respond to it by trusting Him with renewed faith?
People everywhere need to hear our testimonies. They don’t ONLY need to hear preachers. Don’t get me wrong, they do need to hear preachers, but they also NEED to hear from the 99% who walk next to them every day as fellow non-preachers.
Think about what your testimony is. My guess is that God has done far more than you’ve ever publicly acknowledged. And maybe the time is coming for you to right that. Set Jesus apart in your heart as Lord and be prepared to give an accounting for the hope you have - to anyone who asks i.e. why do you have the hope and faith you have?
So be ready when the church comes a askin’.
What is your testimony? Because someone needs to hear it.
1 Peter 3:15
