TESTIMONY IS PRAISE - WHAT’S YOUR STORY: INTRODUCTION

Why would anyone want to hear about our lives? Most would say there is nothing “special” about us. We’re not trained pastors and our friends and family may be disappointed when they hear about our struggles. Clearly, we should never have thought we have anything of value to bring forth, right? No! These are lies the enemy has told us. We were all created by God in His image, and He has a purpose for each of our lives. In this book, we will use Biblical principles woven into our testimony to encourage you to tell your story, your experiences of God’s faithfulness.

When something happens in life that can only be explained by God being the master orchestrator, some like to call it coincidence, but we like to say those are God stories, or testimonies.

We believe testimony is praise. Our intention is not to focus on ourselves, but to give God glory for what He has done in our lives. We will start each chapter with Scripture, each of our testimonies, a few comments about the topic of the chapter, and then some questions that will help you reflect and will sometimes challenge you to action. You can stop and answer the questions as you complete each chapter—or you could decide to do them after reading the entire book.

John’s Testimony

As I walked by the church meeting room one night in February 2016, my friend Brad stopped me. After telling me the speaker for that night’s Celebrate Recovery® session had called in sick, Brad said I should give my testimony. I’m a person who likes to plan, even for a simple prayer in front of a group, so I responded with, “I don’t have a testimony.” How much more wrong could I have been? I didn’t speak that night, but the next several months were filled with so many struggles and God stories that a seed was planted for this book.

Perhaps you don’t think you have a story either. Maybe you think your life has been unremarkable. Our prayer is this book will be an encouragement to you so you will know your story is important, your story isn’t over, and, through your experiences, God has prepared you to help others. Ephesians 2:10 says, “For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the things He planned for us long ago.”

Donna’s Testimony

When John said he didn’t have a testimony, my first reaction was panic! To me, that meant “his story” would involve me—and I was fairly sure it wasn’t going to be pretty.

Fast forward two years and many struggles later, and I was right! Now that John realized he had a testimony, he was convinced that “we” needed to write a book. I naturally said: “Uh, no.” Not just no, but NO!!!!!!!!! He expected me to talk about the areas of my life I NEVER talk about. What possible reason could I have to do that? John wrote a brief introduction and chapter outline, but with me not cooperating, he put it aside.

Another year went by. We were at a ministry meeting and a dear friend suddenly said, “I need to tell you guys what the Lord is telling me.” First, she asked if we worked together. We said, “No, but we share an office; we both work remotely for two separate companies based in Kentucky.” She told us we would be working together on a project and God would take it from there. John immediately said, “It’s the book I told you about!” I just said, “Have fun with YOUR book.”

The next day, without knowing what we had heard the night before, another friend of ours texted John, “Praying for you, my friend. There is an intersection coming your way. Speak!” John was adamant this time about writing a book together because he was sure he was hearing from God, and I knew he wasn’t going to let it go. I had been in this position before, with John and me seriously disagreeing, so I did the same thing I did then: I prayed not to be a stumbling block for John if this was God’s will. A few days later, we took a laptop and went to a restaurant to discuss the first chapter. The waitress came by and said, “I don’t want to interrupt, but do you mind if I ask what you guys are working on?” John told her the title of the book and the reason for writing it. She said she wanted to read it when we get it finished! She also told us she had just moved here and didn’t have a church home. We gave her our number and invited her to come to church with us.

I was still struggling with the book’s topics and what to say, but I could no longer argue since John had received confirmation from three separate people in a week’s time. I asked Holy Spirit why He spoke through someone else instead of telling me. He simply said, “If I asked you to write a book, would you?”

I knew I wouldn’t have. The God stories you will read are just a glimpse of what God has been doing in our lives—including what happened during the book writing process!

So…let’s start at the beginning!