{Be Loved} The Power of Your Story

The other day I was flipping through the New Testament, and I was noticing how many parables are in the scriptures.  There are around 46 parables.  I started to think about Jesus, and how he taught by telling these stories.  It was much more common for Him to teach using parables instead of speaking like a priest, instead of giving a sermon.

His parables spoke truth when the people weren’t ready to hear the plain and simple words of truth, they worked their way deeper into their minds.  He was revealing Himself as a different kind of savior, and He was revealing God as a good Father, and it was so contrary to what people expected and wanted to see and already knew, that they wouldn’t have accepted the beautiful, simple truth that He was giving them.  Jesus gave people a story they could remember, and see the parallels in their lives and through that, truth was revealed.  Stories have a way of bypassing the cynical part of our brains.  Sometimes, simple truth hits a wall, but a story can hit us right in the heart.

Your story, your testimony, isn’t just yours.  When you belong to the family of God, your story becomes part of a beautiful tapestry, woven from millions and millions of threads to create a bigger picture.

Way back in Exodus, the second book of the Bible, the word testimony shows up.  See, God gave Moses the law, but He also gave Moses encounters with His presence.  Moses understood that it was precious.  And God told Moses multiple times to put the testimony of His people in the ark.  God gave Moses very specific instructions on what to do in order to set up the ark of the testimony.  The ark that carried the presence of God, that was so powerful and precious.

Later in the Old Testament, the ark stayed in a room called the holy of holies.  This room was in the center of the temple, and only the High Priest was allowed to go into this room, and only once a year.  He had to go through a bunch of rituals just to be clean enough to be near the presence of God for a short amount of time, and they would tie a rope around his ankle so that if he wasn’t clean enough or if he did something wrong and died, they could pull him out.  If anyone else went in, they would instantly die.

This is how powerful and precious the presence of God is, and this is the result of being near it in a body that hasn’t been cleansed with the blood of Jesus.

The ark carried the history of God’s people, and their story lived within His presence.

The hebrew word for testimony literally means do it again.  God’s people had a story of deliverance and freedom, and God did it over and over again because that was their testimony, and that’s His character, and the power of remembering what He has done compels Him to do it again because He is good and He loves us and He always wants to bring us freedom and deliverance.

Here’s where it gets amazing, though.  See, when Jesus took every single sin that would ever be committed from every single person that would ever live and took it to the grave, he buried it in the ground.  All of the sins you have ever done, and every one that you ever will do has been buried.  It’s dead.  It has no power over you.

And when Jesus rose from the dead, he DEFEATED sin and death and LOVE WON once and for all.  The veil in the temple that separated the holy of holies from the rest of the world ripped in half and the presence of God stormed out.

We became the temples of God.  Our actual bodies are clean enough (meaning TOTALLY clean) for God’s presence to live in.  God ALWAYS looks at us through Jesus’ blood.  He sees us as holy, righteous, and worthy of His presence.  We are new creations, cleansed by His blood always and forever.  It can’t be undone.  We can’t be tainted because any future sins are paid for already, and if you’ve accepted this and given Jesus your heart and believe in Him, you are His and He is yours.  He ABIDES in you.

You are His temple, and He cannot and will not be near sin.  You might think, “yeah but I mess up all the time…I can’t stop doing this, I have this addiction, I lust and I have this secret horrible life of sin” but you know what?  That’s not who you are, and you are being called into something greater.  Transformed.  The guilt and condemnation you carry from those things are not from God, there’s no condemnation in His kingdom.  He says “repent and come to me.”  That means turn away from it, turn towards God, and don’t look back (if you want to talk more about this, send me a message).

You may think you are the exception from the rule, but if you believe and Jesus lives in you, the Bible says that He will never leave you nor forsake you (Deut. 31:6) and that NOTHING can separate you from the love of God (Romans 8:38-39), so there’s literally nothing you can do to make yourself unworthy or dirty.  You are clean and pure.  And that amazing truth stirs up the desire to live holy.  You don’t live holy to be holy, you are holy, and therefore you want to please God and love him fully. (Read Romans 6:1-4)

Now you carry the presence of God, and you carry a story as well.  You carry testimonies of God’s goodness and of His love.

It’s so easy to talk ourselves out of sharing our stories.  We think that we are unimportant.  We think that because it’s not the most incredible, outrageous story ever, it’s not worth sharing.

Nothing could be farther from the truth.

Every time you share a piece of your testimony, a story of something that God has done in your life, you release the power of God.  His presence is everywhere, and He wants to encounter people just like He has been doing since the beginning.  He longs for it!  He wants to do it again.  If you have a story of how God showed you His love for you, now matter how simple, it’s a powerful thing, and God wants to do that again for everyone around you.

I don’t care how many times I have encountered God and His goodness, I always want more.  It doesn’t matter if you are sharing with people who have no idea who Jesus is, or with people who grew up in the church and feel like they have heard it all.  It never grows tiresome because there’s always more of God…of His love, His presence, His goodness.

It’s something we will explore for all of eternity, that’s how vast and incredible and beautiful God is.  And eternity starts NOW.

You carry something unique and powerful in your story, and one way to really love and be loved is to share your life with others.  To be vulnerable enough to share your heart and your story, and trust that God will always be your strong tower, your help in times of trouble.  God is your Papa, He is always good.

See, by sharing our stories, we are sharing the presence of God.  We are saying, “DO IT AGAIN, GOD!”  And He always responds!  It doesn’t matter how eloquent you are because the power of your story isn’t in your words.  It’s in the God behind the words.  And when you share, you open a door for Jesus to walk through and encounter the hearts of the people hearing it.

“Your testimonies are my heritage forever,
    for they are the joy of my heart.”

 

Psalm 119:111

prayer

God, you are so incredibly good!  I want to know more of your goodness, of your love, and I pray that you would mold and shape my story and reveal to me the power that is in it.  I pray, Father, that your glory would be released as I share and I pray for more boldness to step into the plans you have for me.  I am your temple, I carry your presence, and I am precious to you.  I am so honored to be chosen as a vessel.  I pray that as I share the story you have woven in my life, you would encounter those that hear it.  Thank you, Jesus, for giving me the opportunity to be washed clean, separated from the world, a worthy and loved person to you!  You love me!  Help me to know it more.  I love you, Jesus, and pray this in your name.  AMEN.