“Your story of redemption — your testimony — has so much power that it is in the same sentence with ‘the blood of the Lamb.’ No wonder the devil wants us to keep our stories buried in the shallow graves of bitterness, resentment, and shame. . . . Your story is a divine weapon that has the power to defeat the devil. It is living proof of Jesus’ redemptive power here on earth.”- Sharon Jaynes (emphasis author’s)
“They triumphed over him [the devil] by the blood of the Lamb and by their testimony.”- Revelation 12:11 (NIV)
In Chapter 8 (“Why Your Story Matters”) of When You Don’t Like Your Story, Sharon Jaynes underscores what happens when you’ve not ashamed of your story. When you testify how God redeemed your deepest, darkest places, you give hope to desperate sojourners who feel so alone.
And when a story is a real one, that makes it even better. Because your story of God’s intervention in your life makes Him real to all who hear it. Hence, Sharon explains:
“Everyone wants to be better than they are at the moment, whether or not they voice that longing. Hearing about how that happened in someone else’s life is magnetic. Pastor Rick Warren put it this way: ‘Shared stories build a relational bridge that Jesus can walk across from your heart to theirs.’ ”
For example, consider the story of the man born blind (John 9:1-7). Sharon notes that in Jesus’ day, people routinely spit on the ground as they passed a deformed or disabled person. Because people believed a curse caused the infirmity. As a result, spitting on the ground kept the curse away.
Therefore, the dirt itself made no difference in the blind man’s life. However, the real miracle = what Jesus did with the dirt. Sharon continues:
“And it’s the same with you and me. It’s not the dirt of our story that will make a difference in someone else’s life. It’s what God did with the dirt that is the real miracle. Sharing our dirt makes us relatable; sharing what God did with the dirt makes him visible.”
Today’s question: What’s your story of redemption? Please share.
Tomorrow’s blog: “Divine appointment meets deliverance story”
