Speak up!
At the risk of stating the obvious, Thanksgiving is right around the corner. This time of year, many have made a concerted effort at gratitude. A heart of gratitude is essential as we walk with Christ. Romans 1:21 warns that as people strayed from Christ, “they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him…” Gratitude keeps our hearts and minds set on things above.
My heart has been called to attention lately on the calling not just to be grateful, but to testify. It is one thing to give thanks, but it is another to testify to what the Lord has done. They go hand in hand, but are not the same.
In a world of chronic oversharing, we simultaneously have a tendency to be very private people. Sharing certain things far too much, and sharing other things not enough. Why is that? What makes it easier to share our political opinions, our food pictures, and our side businesses, but not share our hearts?
Why is it so much easier to post something to social media, and so hard for us to share something one on one with a trusted friend?
In a society that filters almost everything, we need to learn to be quick to listen and slow to speak about certain things. We need to be more cautious about some of our words. But some things need to be shared more freely.
That is our testimony. Often we do not have much to offer, except our testimony of what the Lord has done.
Sometimes we believe the lie that we have nothing to share. But that is because we don’t have eyes to see.
Sometimes we resist testifying to the Lord, because we fear that it makes us look bad. We desire to be in control. We desire to have it all together. To have no need, no lack, and no weakness. So we resist sharing the way God comes through, because that means we needed Him. And that feels uncomfortable. How would people react if we were less than perfect?!
Brothers and sisters, no more!
We need to lean into our purpose. The Bible calls us over and over to testify. To speak actual words. To share our stories. That is our purpose.
Do not be intimidated. God does not call us all to stand on a stage and give our full life story. He doesn’t call us to share all the gritty details with every random person we meet on the street. He doesn’t even call us to be eloquent.
He just tells us to speak out.
With words.
To real living human beings that are placed in our path.
Maybe the woman next to you needs to hear how God encouraged you through the scripture on a particularly hard day.
Maybe someone you are mentoring would benefit from hearing how the Lord ministered to you in a particular sin struggle.
Maybe a couple in your small group needs to hear how God worked in a particularly sticky area of your marriage.
We need to testify! We need to speak of the victories of Christ to those around us. That is what we were made for and saved for. To testify of His faithfulness.
God is enthroned upon the praises of His people. And the enemy is silenced by the truth of our testimony.
The enemy wants us to stay silent and “not bother” people. He wants us to think that those little mercies are “no big deal”. He wants us to wait until we have the “right words”.
But the enemy has no say anymore. So let us speak and testify. Let us share those things that are very real and very present.
Even in all the ways we can allow ourselves to feel unqualified and ineffective, no one can take away our testimony. No one can discount our stories of all the Lord has done in us and through us.
Our media feeds are flooded with pretty, empowering, yet all too often vague hand lettered messages and affirmations. We desire to be built up. We desire encouragement. But what we need is real life stories of how God literally met each of us in a time of need or hardship. We don’t always need nameless, faceless pretty sounding words. We need the whole real life picture. The difficult, and yet victorious truth.
It is in our testimony that God is glorified. It is in the communicating that our hearts are turned to gratitude. Speaking out our experiences allows them to be go forth and be used, be multiplied.
So do not be ashamed of telling your story. Because it is God’s story. And He is delighted in the telling.
So as we look back this week in gratitude and thankfulness, let us share the bigger picture.
Let share that we are thankful for our families, because through trial God has held us together.
We can be thankful for our jobs, because in those long days God helped us to lay down our frustration and walk in joy.
Let us be grateful for repentance and salvation for brokenness and addiction.
Let us be grateful for the way God met our bad attitudes with patience, and sometimes painfully stripped away the idols we were running to for comfort.
Other than the Word of God and the Holy Spirit, our greatest tool is our testimony. Speak up!
