Hello people!
It’s only week two, and we’ve already been asked to share our testimonies during a church service.
Sharing what God has done and is doing in our life should be the easiest thing in the world, right? So why is it so hard for me to actually crave to get up on a stage and speak the love and joy and grace that He has shown me?
For one… I hate all eyes on me when I’m speaking. It gives me some serious social anxiety, y’all.
Second… Satan. He knows how powerful our stories can be and how they can literally stir the hearts of others and give hope to the lost. (He probably is behind the whole “social anxiety” stuff, too, if ya ask me.)
Anyway, like I keep saying, I want to step out of my comfort zone this year, so I volunteered for the second round of testimonies during our time here in Albania.
To be completely honest, I used to hate my story. I knew I had a relationship with Christ, but I always heard the testimonies that dealt with pretty big issues that I hadn’t struggled with and thought mine wasn’t as impactful as everyone else’s. But, little did I know, He was/is still writing mine.
While thinking about what I was going to focus on to share on Sunday, God put it on my heart to share on my blog what He had done in my life.
I haven’t shared my testimony very often (definitely not with an audience of more than 2), so bear with me!
Like most children under the Mason-Dixon Line, I grew up in the church.
I can vividly remember the day that I accepted Christ as my Lord and Savior when I was in the sixth grade in a small group we had on Sunday afternoons! (Shoutout to Mrs. Karen Watkins!! 🙂 )
I continued to grow up and was very active in the church and sincerely loved God with everything I had.
But life can be hard.
Family dynamics changed, and it was a lot to handle. It’s crazy how in the moment you don’t really understand what’s happening, but you can look back years later and see how certain things led to others.
I started going to counseling and was put on anti-depressants. Nothing really seemed to help me get out of the pit I was in. (It doesn’t help that I am/was stubborn and super independent, and I wasn’t very accepting of help from others.)
During this time, I held onto my faith, it just looked more like a religion than a relationship.
I became very legalistic and thought everyone who “claimed to be a Christian,” but didn’t quite act like it, needed to get their life together. I was just going through the motions, but didn’t really know what it looked like to have an intimate relationship with our God who so desperately wants us to draw closer to Him.
God was definitely walking right beside me the whole time; He used my stubbornness for His glory when He led me to decide that I didn’t need medication to try and “make me feel better”anymore, because I knew that only the blood of Christ has that kind of power.
After my senior year of high school I attended two mission trips in the States that completely shook my faith.
I wanted more.
Freshman year of college started, and I, being the introvert that I am, wasn’t into the whole “go out and meet new people” idea of college. So, I hung out in my dorm and dug into the Word and found so much life and hope and joy.
I found a relationship with God that I had never experienced before.
He has so much more to offer than just “following the rules” or going through the motions. There is so much freedom in surrendering our life to Him who gave HIS LIFE for US!
I LOVE looking back and seeing what God does with the trials that we go through. I even find it intriguing now when going through trials to see what good He has coming from it.
If I haven’t told you yet, God is so amazing.
If you don’t believe in God: yes, it all sounds crazy, but He has so much to offer you, if you just have FAITH. He is so loving and forgiving and amazing and the list can go (and will go) on for eternity.
I love how during one of our Training Camp sessions on evangelism, they told us the one thing others can’t deny is our story. And this, my beautiful friends, is mine.
So, from this day on, my story of how God turned my faith upside down won’t be one that I will shy away from. God is so good to us, y’all.
I encourage you, brothers and sisters, to share your story whenever you can. You never know who is listening and what the Holy Spirit can do in that moment.
