All Testimonies are Valuable

Every testimony that God has given to His people is meaningful.

I have got to say… we have such a creative God. Don’t you just love all of the variety in everything that he’s created? Everything you see when you look around you is a part of God’s creativeness. No matter how similar things may seem, everything is different in some way. Shape, form, color, etc. Look at how different everyone is. Look at how beautiful sunsets and rainbows are. Think about the thought process put into the different seasons or what humans, plants, and animals would turn out to be like. Something I especially want you to think about for this post is how everyone’s lives are different. No matter how similar your life may seem to somebody else’s, everyone has ways that make their life different from everyone else’s.

Here’s what I wanted to bring up. Testimonies. I started to gain a really strong interest in people’s testimonies last year. I still love to learn about them. Something I’ve realized though is that people often tend to make complaints about their testimony. One complaint that I hear a lot is that people feel like their testimony is boring. Thinking about that made me think about this Substack.

This Substack was created to try and help people see God in the hard times in their life by giving personal experiences that I could see God in. So far, this Substack has only been about ways that God has been a part of my life. I’m writing this post a little bit differently though because I want to add in ways that can help you think about your life rather than just mine whenever I bring up different moments in my life.

There’s value to every kind of testimony.

A lot of people will separate testimonies into boring and dramatic. Whatever kind you think you have is great. If you consider yourself to have a boring testimony, I hope you realize how valuable it is to have that kind of testimony. You have a testimony that is more likely to relate to other people. It’s also likely a better example to others of how life should be lived. Also, it can help people realize that God’s plans aren’t all messy or whatever. It can show people the different ways that God has protected you from bad things in life that could’ve happened. Your testimony can help people realize that everyone needs to be saved, not just those with a dramatic testimony. The list goes on. If those don’t seem like good reasons to love a testimony that you may consider boring, then think about what I mentioned earlier. Everybody’s life is different in some way.

Dramatic testimonies are just as valuable (no more, no less), they are just valuable in the opposite way. I can say this from experience. My testimony is much more on the dramatic side of things. This is the kind of testimony that shows that God can save anybody, not just those that have been growing up in the church. If your testimony is dramatic because of something you’ve done, it can show how forgiving God is. It can show that God can make His plans come through no matter how wild things may seem in life. It can help people realize how God has helped you throughout all of those dramatic moments. The list goes on.

Mission Trip Experience

This is sort of making me think of an experience I had on a mission trip last year. I was with a group of people who all set out to share the gospel, but I didn’t know how to. I was really nervous about doing it. I kept telling myself, “If I want to be used by God, I must make myself available”. That’s what kept me going the whole time. I would keep trying to share the gospel but people would just walk away. One guy even squeezed his daughter’s head (looked like she was his daughter at least), covered her ears, and treated me like a terrible person. I had only said two sentences to him.

I had always known that testimonies were powerful and I had always loved sharing my testimony, so I decided to go around trying to find ways that people would relate to my testimony. For example, I found a lady who said that she had always thought about what life would be like after she died because she had almost died before. So have I. Whenever I brought up to someone how God was a part of my life in a somewhat similar moment, they were always up for listening. It also always had a great impact on others. All testimonies are very powerful. I hope you don’t underrate just how wonderful it is that God has given all of us a testimony. Your testimony is made just for you. Find joy in sharing your testimony. Use your testimony for God’s glory, just as it should be used.

A Lifechanging Dream

Also, real quick, I want to bring up a dream that I once had. It started off that I was just sitting on the sidewalk, all alone, and everything around me was pitch black. It was as if nothing had ever been created before. You couldn’t even see the outline of anything. Then, all of a sudden, this guy walked up to me and said, “You can’t change other people’s minds if they don’t want them to be changed, but that’s okay, because remember. It’s your job to tell people the truth and the Holy Spirit will do the changing of their minds”. Then, he reached out his hand, helped me up, and as soon as I stood up, color returned to everything. There were all of these tall buildings around me. There were so many people that they were having a hard time walking around each other. It was awesome to see how happy they were. The sky was a bright blue. The sun was shining bright in the middle of the sky with no clouds around it. It was beautiful. That dream happened many years ago, but it was a dream that I’ll never forget.

I get that that was just a dream, but I want to use it as an allegory. We may be all alone in a dark and sinful world, but God knows how to help you and is there for you when you need Him. Tell people about God’s truth. Let the Holy Spirit do the work in their lives. Choose to accept and follow God. Who knows? Big changes could happen. The whole world could change. Other people could change. Just put God at the center of your life with nothing to distract yourself from Him, and things can get so much better.

Maybe God did give me this dream as an allegory. Maybe it was an allegory for me, maybe it was an allegory for everyone, maybe it wasn’t meant to be an allegory at all. I’m not the kind of person who tries to find hidden messages in dreams, but I feel like this is a great dream to use as an allegory and I want to use it to everyone’s advantage. You can call me crazy if you want, but that’s simply how I feel about it. How you feel about it I’ll leave up to you.

Your Own Testimony

I have some tips on how to tell your testimony in a meaningful way that you will love no matter what you currently think of your testimony. I currently have 13 in mind, but we’ll see if God helps me add more to that list or not. I plan on going more into detail about each of those with future posts but, for now, keep in mind everyone who follows God has a testimony… a very powerful God-given testimony. Don’t worry, the theme will remain the same. Joy Amidst Trials. Helping people see God in the hard moments of their life through personal experiences.

If this feels like it’ll be steering off track for what you were desiring from this Substack (testimony tips, not just stories about ways that God has shown himself to me), please let me know either in the chat or at joyamidsttrialssubstack@gmail.com

Also, keep in mind, I am totally up for other people’s experiences or tips as well. Just send yours through the email mentioned above and any other information you may want me to know such as if you want me to simply say that it’s from one of my subscribers or something else. Maybe even if there’s a specific date that you desire for it to be sent. Questions, comments, stories, criticism, I’m open to it all. I’m not trying to make you feel pressure or anything, I just want to make sure people haven’t forgotten that this Substack isn’t meant to be about me. I’ve also gained multiple subscribers since I last brought that up. I simply want God to be at the center of it all.