Devotion for September 15, 2008

A Personal Testimony

This writer has often heard testimonies of how people were saved by God. There are as many variations as there are testimonies obviously. However, there is one common thread, and that is the sinner came to an awareness of his sinful state and the penalty associated with that state then cried out to God for salvation.

There is nothing wrong theologically with what most believers are sharing as a testimony. However, it has occurred to this author that those repeatedly hearing such testimonies might form an incomplete understanding and give the devil a foothold. Surely he has invaded the souls of many with this deception.

The deception occurs when one looks to the moment of conversion and its accoutrements as proof of salvation. Feeling bad about your condition and reconsidering is not necessarily salvation. We are saved, “. . . if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end.” (Hebrews 3:6 NKJV) Therefore, “Let us hold fast the confession of [our] hope without wavering, for He who promised [is] faithful.” (Hebrews 10:23 NKJV)

You see the emphasis in Scripture as it relates to assurance is not on justification but on sanctification. When the Bible tells us how to know you are saved it does not point back to conversion but to your current condition. “Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments.” (1 John 2:3 NKJV)

It was many years before this saint realized the importance of living today and not resting on laurels.  Notice in the following passage how the believer is to make his call and election sure.

“But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. For if these things are yours and abound, [you will be] neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins. Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble; for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” (2 Peter 1:5-11 NKJV)

You see it is not the hearers of the word that are saved, “But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues [in it], and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.

Therefore, don’t just look back to a one-time experience as proof of salvation, and don’t give just that to hearers as proof of salvation in your testimony lest they misunderstand and dismiss the promptings of their conscience. Instead focus on what God is doing in your life today. Tell people how you are in a constant struggle with the flesh, and how the more you understand God the more you see your sin. Tell people how you suffer because you wish not to sin. Tell people how they need to brace themselves for life in Christ is not just peace with God, but is also enmity with the world and Satan. “Therefore, since Christ suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same mind, for he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin.” (1 Peter 4:1 NKJV)

My dear friends do not be a tool of the devil to deceive people. If you are one quick to speak, make sure you give the whole testimony. Tell people what it really means to live for Christ. Tell people how your assurance comes from seeing the leading of the Holy Spirit in your life. Tell people how you cry out abba Father because you have felt His loving arms around you as you walked through the battlefield of life wounded but secure.

If anyone among you thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this one’s religion [is] useless. Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, [and] to keep oneself unspotted from the world.” (James 1:25-27 NKJV)

Therefore, think about what you should share when you have an opportunity, and may the God of all creation give you a mighty testimony of a changed life.