About three months after I became a believer in Jesus Christ, unbeknownst to me at the time, Burt went out to our back field. It was dusk. He knelt down and said, “God, I don’t know you like my wife does, but if You are real, show me.” He waited a few minutes for something to happen. But nothing happened.
The next morning Burt backed his pickup down the driveway to go to work. At the end of our driveway lay a book. He scooped it up, glanced at it, tossed it on his dash, and drove to work. He had noticed that it was The Living Bible, and that it had been driven over several times embedding many small pebbles deep into the cover. Still he said nothing to me thinking it was insignificant.
While on the job a couple weeks later, it poured rain. The construction crew scrambled to their trucks to wait it out. Burt was alone in his truck. His radio did not work so he polished off his lunch. Then he spied the Bible on the dash. He opened it and stared at the heading on the page – ‘Ephesians 1:1.’ He read all six chapters. Then a thought nudged its way into his mind, God, if You are real, show me.
The rain spattered against the windshield as he let the realization sink in that God heard his prayer asking God to show him if He was real.
That evening Burt told me his whole story. We prayed together as joy, like a soft blanket, swept over us. We had been married for nine years when we both became believers, and for the next 47 years of marriage, Burt never lost his joy or his zeal for Jesus and his testimony of how Jesus answered his prayer.
Wouldn’t it be awesome if we could see a movie or read a book of everyone’s story of their coming to faith from God’s perspective? All the details and what He was doing behind the scene, to bring everything together for the exact moment we believed?
May I encourage you: do not be shy about sharing your testimony with your family and friends, neighbors and co-workers, the unchurched and strangers. You may think your story is anything but wonderous, but God does not think so, nor do the angels. Luke 15:10 says, “I say to you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” Every account of a person coming to Christ in faith is unique and totally wonderous causing people, angels, and God Himself to rejoice!
Every soul that is saved has its own story in God’s redemptive plan. That makes every story worthy of sharing!
Who knows? Maybe your testimony will be the source that gives another person the beginning of his story? And the beat goes on.
Here’s a promise that God gives to all: Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks, it will be opened. Matthew 7:7-8
Did you know that sharing your faith in God leads people to place their hope in God’s promises? See Hebrews 10:19-25
May the joy of the Lord motivate us all to share our redemptive stories for His glory.