What's Your Story?

Song Title: Next Thing You Know

Artist: Matthew West

Album: History

View the Lyrics

Song on YouTube

Have you ever found yourself totally lost in a story? The whole world seems to fade away and you are so lost in the story that you forget about everything else around you. One story that can change someone's life is your testimony. How did you come to the Lord? What has He done for you? What do you hope He will do for you? How do you imagine an eternity with God.

Matthew West tells his testimony in Next Thing You Know. His story of faith begins when he's thirteen. He then shares his story about how he rededicated his life to Christ in college after being pulled away by the world. Lastly he goes on to tell how he imagines everyone will share their stories in heaven.

If you are a Christian then you have a story to tell about how you came to know the Lord, what the Lord has done for you, and what hopes and dreams you have about an eternity with Christ. Do you know how to share your story? Do you know what you'd say?

One important way of getting better at telling your story is to write it down. Recently at church we heard about how useful it can be to write down the date and time when you first were saved by Christ, so it will be a physical reminder for you to hold on to in the future that what you did and how you felt was real. Writing down your thoughts, hopes, and prayers to God is a great way to start building your story, your testimony. Then you can go back and read your story to give you strength in times of struggle.

By writing down your stories you'll also get better at learning how you'd tell your story to others. Your stories can be a great witness, and there are no stories of your relationship with God that are too small to tell. God can use all of our stories. You can also write your stories in a Blog like this one. You can use art or photographs to tell your story. You can keep a video journal.

The Bible is a collection of stories. Can you imagine what we would be missing if Moses decided that his stories weren't important enough to write down? There goes the first five books of the Bible. What if Paul thought he was too busy to write his letters? There goes most of the New Testament. What if John decided that the gospel was already covered, so why bother telling his story of the time he spent with Jesus?

There is a prophet in the Bible that could have decided not to write down his story because his story got him into all kinds of trouble. His name was Jeremiah. God gave Jeremiah the job to reveal the sins of the people and explain the reason for an impending disaster which will turn out to be the destruction and captivity by the Babylonian empire. Jeremiah kept telling his story even though he was betrayed by his own brothers (Jer 12:6), beaten and put into the stocks by a priest and false prophet (Jer 20:1-4), imprisoned by the king (Jer 37:18), threatened with death (Jer 38:4), and opposed by a false prophet (Jer 28). On a good day Jeremiah was ignored. On a bad day, people were out to get him. Could you blame Jeremiah if he didn't write down his story? But, without Jeremiah we wouldn't have the Old Testament book bearing his name. We wouldn't have Lamentations, or 1st and 2nd Kings. All these books authored by a writer that nobody wanted to hear from at the time, but later, long after he was gone he would inspire many people to not give up hope on God even when times get really, really tough.

Your story of your relationship with God is important. It can change lives. It can inspire others. Write down your story. Learn it. Practice telling it. Share it with others. You never know how important your witness can be to the people who hear it, or in how many ways God can use your story.

So what's your story, about His glory? Find your place in the history of grace and tell your thirteen.