by Rhys Scott
It was such a joy to hear Benny, Kim and Sandro and Cheri tell their stories of God’s life-changing power and tenderness this past Sunday. As we gathered in our LifeGroup last night it was profound listening to one anothers’ ‘short testimonies’. I hope you found joy in doing so too!
It can be easy to walk into a church meeting, hear the laughter, observe the friendship and see the hands lifted in worship, assume that everyone else has it all together and feel “I’m the only one who doesn’t”.
Stories like the ones we heard on Sunday remind us that God is powerfully at work in the mess of real life, restoring and healing us, bringing joy where there has been pain, giving hope to hopeless people and peace to fearful hearts.
Each of us has a story. A God story.
Jesus is a life-giver, and He has given each of us a powerful gift to give away: our story of His kindness to us. He wants to use our stories to reach out to others with his love. He met us in the reality of the gritty reality of our lives, turning failure into freedom and shame into adoption, and people need to hear that.
You may think your story is nothing special – but if you will learn to tell it, with Jesus as your story’s hero, you will be surprised at what God will do through it in the lives of others.
We would love to hear more stories – stories big and small, of salvation, healing, freedom coming, provision, grace in the midst of difficulty. Each one encourages us to believe God for more of His transforming power at work in us and in those around us. It may feel daunting to tell your story, but you never know how much of a gift it is to someone else until you tell it.
Can I encourage you this week to take half an hour and write down your story?
Start with trying to tell it in 3-4 minutes (that’s the hardest time frame – because you have to work out what to leave out!). The trick is to make sure you give a good overview of life before God’s intervention – but not to give that so much focus that you don’t have enough time to talk about how God intervened, and what the impact of His intervention has been ever since.
In a conversation you may well only have 3-4 minutes to share your story. But if you will be ready with it you never know what kind of seed you might plant in someone’s heart.
