What is one thing God has done for you specifically? How do you know he is real? Where have you personally seen him work?

THAT IS YOUR TESTIMONY.

How do you share your testimony without making it about you? MAKE IT ALL ABOUT JESUS.

Here’s the truth – nobody really wants to know all the details about how bad things were for you. Nobody needs to hear a 45 minute long story that proves your life was worse than theirs. A testimony is not a competition of the worst beginnings. Testimony is a life so changed by God that your lifestyle becomes the evidence. You tell them what God did for you, then you live in a way that shows it’s true.

I first started going to church when I was 15. My parents were trying to make up for lost time, so we went not only on Sunday mornings, but on Sunday nights for double credit. Oh how I dreaded testimony time every Sunday night. Without fail there were the same old women that would stand up and say the same exact things every time. One woman was Irene Davidson. (Her husband was Harley Davidson.) Irene would be the first to stand during testimony time and she would say, “I just had to share how good the Lord has been to me. He’s never left me a single day.” Then she would give a recap of her day. “I had oatmeal for breakfast and it set on my stomach good, praise the Lord. I worked in my garden today and the sun was shining on my back, praise the Lord. Harley is still walking and here with me tonight, praise the Lord.” Then the next little old woman would stand and share her testimony.

It all meant nothing to me. What’s the point?

But one night, my Daddy stood up and gave a testimony. He said he was a sinner saved by grace and every blessing in his life was because of Jesus. That one hit me. For the next 3 years I went most every Sunday night and testimony time became something different for me. It became a time when I struggled with the Holy Spirit who continually prompted me to share my testimony. But here’s what held me back – I didn’t know what my testimony was. I was a good girl with a good family, living a good life. What had Jesus really done for me? Was it anything worth talking about?

Does anyone else feel that way? You feel that either there’s nothing worth talking about, or nothing you would be willing to talk about, so your testimony isn’t shared. Or when you have shared your testimony it was just a story of how horrible things were for you and Jesus was a little sprinkle on top to label your self-story time as a testimony.

Today, we will open our Bibles and read precisely what a testimony looks like and the affect it can have. Then, you will receive a challenge to prepare your 2 minute testimony. I wish someone would have told 15 year old Pamela that she had a testimony of how Jesus changed my life and gave me the tools to craft it. 50 year old Pamela can still benefit from that today, so today she’s going to get it!

In John 4 we read of Jesus encountering a woman at the well. This woman was drawing water in the heat of the day all alone. Why was that? Because she was an outcast. She was talked about by the other women, looked down on as ‘less than’, and unwelcome to be at the well with the others in the morning when it was cooler. So, she labored in the full sun alone at the well.

One day, Jesus met this woman at the well and asked her for some water. This sparked a conversation between the woman and Jesus. Jesus addresses her shame, knowing exactly why she’s at the well alone. He says to her in verse 18, “You have had 5 husbands, and you aren’t even married to the man you’re living with now.” Why would he do that?

He wanted this woman to know he knew everything about her, and yet he still chose to be there with her. Then, for the first time, Jesus reveals his true identity. He says in verse 26, “I am the Messiah!”

The whole world had been waiting for the coming of the Messiah, the one who would change everything. And this is the woman chosen to hear from Jesus himself that it was really him. And he wanted to make it clear that he knew her life hadn’t been easy. He knew she was shamed by her community. He knew she carried deep hurt. And he chose her to be the very first one to know who he really was. He says, “I know who you really are, now let me tell you who I really am.”

That’s what Jesus wants to show us. “Here’s who you really are, and this is who I really am.” That’s what changes your life! Who are you, and who is Jesus. That’s your testimony!

After her encounter with Jesus, the woman returns to her village and she shares her testimony. What was it? Verse 40, “He told me everything I ever did!” That’s it. She didn’t have to rehash how horrible life had been. She didn’t have to place blame on her previous 5 husbands who had likely left her over infertility or aging. She didn’t have to recount the shame of now living with a man she wasn’t even married to. Her testimony was as the woman who was hidden in shame, the Messiah knew everything about her and chose her to speak to!

JESUS KNOWS ME.

A simple testimony. Could that possibly have any value or effect? YES! Here’s what this woman’s simple testimony of “He knew me” did – Verse 39, “Many Samaritans from the village believed in Jesus because of what the woman had said.”

MANY lives were changed because she no longer hid in shame and shared that Jesus knew everything about her and spoke to her any way.

Jesus knows everything about you too, my sister. And he wants to save you too. He wants to bring you out of that shame. He wants to heal you from that trauma. He wants to turn you away from your past and point you toward your future with him. Jesus knows you and he chooses you.

That simple truth shared in a way that doesn’t make it about you and makes it all about Jesus can have the power to bring an entire village to Jesus!

We’re so quick to assume we have nothing worthy of saying or sharing and God couldn’t possibly use us for his work. We’re SO WRONG. All this woman said was, “Jesus knew me.” In her pain, in her shame, in her hiding, in her loneliness, in her struggle, in her darkness, JESUS KNEW HER.

Could you say that? I bet that’s your story too. Jesus knew about you when you were struggling. He was there with you. He rescued you. He strengthened you. He began to change your life, and he just wouldn’t let you go.

That’s a testimony, and that testimony could be used by God to save an entire village. Stand up and say it, Sis!

At our retreat this past weekend in the Florida Keys, we gathered under a gazebo on the most picturesque white sand beach on the shores of calm turquoise waters and palm trees. We read this story of the woman at the well, we considered the power of a simple 2 minute testimony that doesn’t make it about us, but makes it all about Jesus, then we practiced choosing ONE way Jesus has proven that he knows us, and we shared it. Oh the power in those short stories of, “Jesus knows everything about me.”

There were souls sitting in that circle that needed to know Jesus knows them too, because until that moment they felt forgotten, unseen and unimportant. But women just like them dared to share how Jesus knew them and it showed in their lives.

When you know Jesus knows you, you begin to change from the inside out. You speak differently. You treat others differently. You view your entire life differently. And it shows.

Now, what is your testimony? Can you craft a 2 minute story that begins with who you are, how Jesus knows you, and what a difference it has made in your life? There’s no need to make it worse or bigger. God is already big enough in your story. He’s perfect in your story. You are not. Don’t make it about you, make it about Jesus!

Choose ONE. I know there are likely many ways Jesus has known you and shown up for you, but choose one to simply point to him, then start saying it.

Here’s my testimony: I’m just a little country girl with absolutely nothing special about me. But, Jesus knew me and called me to be a vessel for his power to flow through. I would have settled for far less, but he called me to so much more. Now I live a life with him daily that is better than anything I could have ever imagined. He has filled my ordinary with his extraordinary and I get to see him work every single day.

Girl, what’s yours? Jesus knows you! There’s unspeakable power in that, but it’s up to you to speak it and release that unspeakable power!

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