Write It Down! [Part 3]

Ok ok ok, as you can see I had to add part three. It’s like every time I start writing about ‘writing it down’, God reveals to me another part in this subject to explore and write about. Simply, Amazing. In this third part I want to share my thoughts about writing down and sharing our life’s journey. About how God manifested His glory in our life; how He took place in it, took over and still shows us each and every day that He is still there and will continue being there tomorrow. About how we have grown in faith and about the trials and tribulations that strengthened it. About the miracles we’ve seen, exceptional moments we have experienced and about the transformations in our life, in ourselves and/or our surroundings. In other and shorter words: writing down our testimonies.

Let me first break down these three words (don’t worry, Google will help me): testimony, testify and testament. Testimony is a public recounting of a religious conversion or experience; it is evidence or proof of something; or a formal written or spoken statement. Testify is either to give evidence or to serve as evidence or proof that something exists or is the case. And Testament is a person’s will; something that serves as a sign or evidence of a specified fact, event, or quality.

When I thought of the old and new testament I never gave it a further thought than the old testament being the old covenant and the new testament being where Jesus came and gave us the new covenant. But then a couple of months ago when I was talking to a friend, a very large penny dropped: I realized that the bible is a book full of  Testimonies written by Human Beings. Please understand why I emphasize these words. Let’s take Job and his story for example. Job was a simple man of perfect integrity, a loyal man who loved God, he was a human being and his book was also written by a human being. The book of Job is his life’s testimony and shows how his character was strengthened. Like Job’s, our life is an open book telling the world about God’s glory and goodness. When in the future we want to share what God did for us, it won’t be enough to try to remember. If you have a brain like mine, you won’t. At least, not completely as it was, with all the details or with the precise words you received. Which may be necessary for that listener to hear. It may be that one detail that will mean something specific to that person and will make a difference. Sooner or later you will start forgetting how it all precisely went. If we value God’s work, we will treasure it. Imagine that you get a ‘mention’ on Instagram from a famous person you admire. That ‘mention’ or tag would be screenshotted, reposted,  placed as your phone wallpaper and sent to all your closest contacts. Or, for the I-care-less-about-social-media group reading this, when your favorite artist responds to your e-mail or autographs your book. It would be printed or framed and hung on the wall so that you could look back on it every time. And that, is exactly how we should treat God’s word. We are blessed in Christ by our Father with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, right? (Ephesians 1:3). Hasn’t God made every grace overflow to you? (2 Corinthians 9:8). And aren’t all your needs supplied according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus? (Philippians 4:9). So, now let’s frame it and hang it up for everyone to see.

Media is used to share a story. Nowadays it can be done in so many different ways, on a broad variation of platforms. Just like Job, the most simple people can go viral. An unheard of, infamous, simple human being’s story can be made known all over the world. One you can or cannot relate to, but at the end it’s definitely one that is heard. What Job and Charlie who bit the finger have in common is that their story was shared.

Psalm 145:4-7 – “One generation will declare Your works to the next and will proclaim Your mighty acts. I will speak of Your splendor and glorious majesty and Your wonderful works. They will proclaim the power of Your awe-inspiring acts, and I will declare Your greatness. They will give a testimony of Your great goodness and will joyfully sing of Your righteousness.”

When we give a testimony of God’s great goodness, it can be a way for others to get to Jesus His testimony. We are then becoming a channel, a conduit of God’s power for salvation (Romans 1:16). Saving people is His job, but we have our part to do too in being His witnesses and testify. We are then presenting someone with a spiritual truth that has the ability to alter their eternity, their life. We testify about all the goodness we have experienced, so that people will be intrigued to know and hear more about it. And then when they come and ask and are curious, that’s our moment to share how we have changed and become the person we are today. We talk about the Who that caused all this change in you and around you. We talk about that Who and His testimony. What He has been through and done for us and that person that didn’t know Him yet.  How marvelous would it be to be a part of this. Let every chance we get, every conversation we make or every relationship be a chance to share Jesus. To share His story, His testimony and His love. Let it be an opportunity for His love to be present and bloom. By the way we live, the way we share and care, by the way we Love is how we will be recognized that we are His children.

Matthew 5:16 – “In the same way, let your light shine before men, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.”

What I want to take out of this is that we are ‘the new testament’ that the world sees. There are people that don’t read the bible or don’t hear the Word of God. Our lives and actions are what the world will see and ‘read’. We are able to show them what it looks like to live a life in the kingdom, live a life guided by the Holy Spirit, live a life following Jesus and live a life fearing God. We do this, by simply living our called out life in these ways. They will see. We will be “recognized and read by everyone”. We will stand out, we will be a smile amongst the frowns, we will be tasty in the middle of the tasteless and we will shine when all lights are turned off. (Remember Matthew 5:14-15). The people around us will See this. How about the people that aren’t so near? Let us give them a chance to Read this. To read Us. Let us be a testament. Where our testimonies will be proof of a life that Can be saved, a life that Can be turned around, proof that trials and tribulations Do Not last forever, proof that God Still has a plan. And let us be a testament where we testify, and in this way will serve AS a testimony. (I didn’t break them down before for no reason).

And yes of course, there are already books and blogs and vlogs and loads of stories of testimonies out there. But not yet enough to reach every corner of the earth or to impact every individual in their own special way. So why not help out a bit. Share yours. Share your story, your testimony, your unique life’s story. Share it with you neighbor, your friend, your co-worker, the lady from the bus and the dude that always says “hi” in the supermarket. Share it with them. I challenge you! And feel oh-so free to share with me. I would LOVE to read your story. And if you like and would allow me to, then I would also LOVE to share your story for you in the ‘Write It Down (WID) – Guest Post’ series.

2 Corinthians 3:2-3 – “You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, recognized and read by everyone. It is clear that you are Christ’s letter, produced by us, not written with ink but with the Spirit of the living God – not on stone tablets but on tablets that are hearts of flesh.”

Paul wrote this letter at that time to encourage his siblings in Christ. I believe it can still work on you (also his sibling in Christ) today. Allow him to encourage you. Allow me to challenge you. And allow God to use you.

WRITE. IT. DOWN.