I never thought my testimony could move people. I didn’t have a catastrophic event happen to me that made me give my life to Christ. I grew up in church my entire life. Talking about God and Jesus came naturally in my household, but that did not stop God from being able to use my life experiences to affect others.
In Albania, we had a translator named Jeta (pronounced Yeta). She is 22 years old and a faithful member in the church. Every Sunday she translated the services and our 2 testimonies that we were asked to give. I gave my testimony the week before at the youth service and wanted a rest, so I chose not to raise my hand to give my testimony this particular Sunday. But as Sunday approached, I felt God calling me to give mine. One of my teammates stated that she was not feeling up to giving her testimony that morning. I saw that moment as my opportunity to listen to what God was telling me and took her place. My teammate was playing her part in God’s plan without even knowing it.
I wrote out an entire testimony that was adequate, but something seemed off about it. I spent most of my time during the beginning of the service praying for God to show me what I should say to this congregation, so they would hear not my words, but His. I felt like God wasn’t giving me any answer.
My teammate gave her testimony and the entire time all I could think was that I was going to get up in front of the church with nothing to say. Oh, but God is a good father and He knew exactly what I was going to say. God directed me to speak about a piece of my testimony that had completely changed while being on the race, my struggle with feeling loved.
I explained how there was a point when I gave up on love because it was easier than being consistently disappointed. I announced that while on the race I had been redeemed by God and now I saw myself as His daughter. I stated how even with knowing I was a daughter of God, it is still a daily struggle for me to understand that the love of the Father is constant for me and He pursues me every moment. Tears began to pour down my cheeks. I was so overcome with emotion that I asked for a moment to collect myself. I locked eyes with Jeta and noticed her eyes were glistening with unshed tears. We were connecting on a deeper level than I thought was possible. I pulled myself together and announced “I am loved and I am worthy of love!” I know these to be true not because of what I have done, but because of who He is.
As the week went on, I thought nothing of what had happened until we were walking through the city with Jeta. I decided to ask her about what she had been feeling in that moment. Jeta explained she had struggled with feeling loved due to certain family situations where her father had not been the father he was meant to be. She was dealing with hurt and pain, which had built up over the years. She spoke about times where she thought she had left behind the hurt and pain, but then she would speak about it or see the people and anger would rise up in her.
She did not want those emotions to rule her life and wanted God to help her be able to forgive them. Jeta agreed that she was learning love not from her Earthly interaction with love, but by growing in a relationship with God and learning about His love.
My heart was overflowing with love for God and the goodness that can only come from Him. I knew that He had given me the words to say on Sunday and that if I had decided not to listen to the Holy Spirit calling me to scratch the testimony I had written, then I might have missed out on this incredible connection. I choose God’s plan over my own because I knew that where He leads there will be fruit.
Sometimes choosing God’s plan over our own is really hard because it requires complete trust. My palms were sweating, my heart was racing and my tongue seemed unable to form words, but through my obedience, I got to see God glorified.
We should all want to share our stories with every person we come in contact with because our stories have nothing to do with what we’ve done, but everything to do with what God has done in us and through us. I know I serve an incredible God that loves to show up in BIG ways including this time where it was not my words, but God’s words that prevailed.
