Godly Testimony

Psalm 40:1-3 “I waited patiently for the Lord to help me, and He turned to me and heard my cry. 2 He lifted me out of the pit of despair, out of the mud and the mire. He set my feet on solid ground and steadied me as I walked along. 3 He has given me a new song to sing, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see what He has done and be amazed. They will put their trust in the Lord.” ~NLT

This year I will be ten years sober. I have transformed into a very different man than the one I was back then. With that said, (and I know I am not the only one who has experienced this), I have had some conversations with others that have alcohol problems, and we were not always on the same page. We get to a point in the conversation where they sense me ‘attempting’ to relate to them. They begin to step back from me because they feel I have no idea what they are going through. 

Have you ever had a conversation with someone and they don’t quite believe you are who you say you are? I mean, they seem to come very close to calling you a ‘liar’ attacking your testimony. Avoid getting upset because someone questions your testimony. If you do, your flesh will make you take them into a debate in which one of you suffered more. And this way is not God’s way. 

I’m here to tell you, don’t get defensive or frustrated with this. The reason we may receive that kind of negativity is because we don’t look like alcoholics, drug addicts or any of those addictions anymore. In other words, your transformation has given you a light that may give someone currently struggling a hard time believing you were in their shoes.

That’s okay. Just because someone doesn’t believe your testimony; that disbelief does not ERASE all that you have been through. It is God’s power through your testimony, (not your testimony alone), that will heal the person in front of you. David says in the text that he ‘waited patiently for the Lord’. Through the ‘mud and mire’. 

One of my ‘mud and mire’ situations was my alcohol abuse. But because I don’t 'look like' what I have been through, doesn’t mean that testimony isn’t powerful. Always remember the times God pulled us through. In a calm, loving, godly way, take those people God has placed in your path back to those days, telling them what God did for you and allow Him to heal them through your story. 

When given the opportunity, let others know how God ‘set your feet on solid ground’ and ‘steady you as you walk along’! Let them hear that ‘new song’ God has placed in your heart! Then many will see what He has done through you and ‘they will be amazed’! Because of God in your testimony, they too will join you ‘in trusting in the Lord’.
​
May God continue to bless and keep you under His umbrella of healing, strength and power as you walk in Jesus’ name.

Amen

---