Why I Shared My Testimony

If you watched My Testimony video last month you heard the story of my life (at least a big chunk of it) and my struggles. I always knew that, even in the midst of my storm,  God was preparing me to help other people get through what I was going through. I was just unsure of how God was going to use me. Then in the beginning of last year, after being delivered from my storm, God told me he wanted me to share my story publicly. At first I was not on board with that idea. Why would God want to embarrass me like that? Why would he want everyone in my business? What good would that do? My version of sharing my testimony was on an 'as needed' basis. Like if someone was in my presence and needed to hear some encouragement, I could just tell them what God had brought me through. Thats honestly all I really wanted to do. But God had other plans. He told that it's not up to me to decide when I would tell it and who needed to hear it. That was up to him. God told me that by sharing My Testimony publicly, I was giving him the control over who would watch it. It also let him control when, where and how it would reach them.

My prayer to God was 'If I help at least one person then God, it was worth it'. So last month, after a lot of stalling and deliberation, I shared My Testimony, in video form (the video is at the top of the page if you missed it). To be quite honest, even though God told me to do it, it was still pretty difficult to share. Not because I am embarrassed of my story (I am not ashamed of anything God has done for me) but because its hard to give people such an opening into my life and not know what they will do with it. People can be mean, cynical, negative, and judgmental (I know I can be sometimes). I just didn't want people to laugh at me or misuse information about the most painful experience of my life. But I had to trust God despite my fears and nervousness. So I did it. I shared My Testimony.

The response was so much better than I asked for. I got phone calls, texts messages, and a ton of shares, likes and comments all week from so many different people. They were all telling me how much sharing My Testimony had helped them. I even had extensive conversations with people about God. I did my best to remind them that God was with them in the midst of their own storms. I was crying like a baby for days. God had taken My Testimony about his grace and mercy through the storms of my life, and turned it into encouragement for other people to keep trusting him through their own storms. Honestly all I can say about that is, GOD is DOPE! 

The moral of this story today is to just do what God tells you to do. Trust that on the other end of your obedience is a blessing from God. In my case, the blessing was for other people. The people who watched me speak and heard from God. Some of these people reached out to me directly and some may never say anything to me about it at all (which is fine too). Remember, all I asked God for was to help one person and God went above and beyond my request. I also learned that being a blessing to someone else, is also a blessing for the blesser. I am forever changed by allowing God to use me.