Wednesday in the Word: Testimony

 

This year I’ve been slowly making my way through Psalm 37, and today I’m looking at verse 25: “I have been young, and now am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken or his children begging for bread.”

                First of all…I learned this verse in a southern gospel song back in my high school days, so I can’t just read the words. I have to sing them in my head. So I started there…never seen the righteous forsakennnnn or His children begging for bread.

                Once I worked through that little side trip, I made my way to a thought that felt noteworthy to me, so I’m going to share it with you. The whole theme of this Psalm is that God does not forsake His people. I’ve seen it over and over so far in this Psalm, and it shows up here again.

                But here’s what I noticed as I pondered that theme. David says he’s been young…and now he’s old. And in all those years he’s lived – the young ones and the old ones – he has NEVER seen God forsake His people. He’s NEVER seen God fail to provide.

                It is important to tell what you know. Tell what you’ve seen in your journey with God. Our nice, fancy church word for that is testimony. Your testimony is just telling the story of what you’ve seen God do in your life.

                No one is too young to have a testimony. I met with a teenager from church just the other day and encouraged her that her testimony DOES matter. God has worked in her life and it’s important to share it. It doesn’t have to be dramatic to be meaningful.

                But for those who are a bit more…seasoned, shall we say…what a gift you have in being able to say what David said. “I’ve been young. Now I’m older. And let me tell you what I have seen with my very own eyes throughout my life. He’s never failed. He’s always provided.”

                Those of us who are younger (and I do still like to count myself in that crowd) NEED your testimony. We NEED to hear from those we know in real life that God has never failed. Yes, we can know it from reading the Bible, but what a powerful, present-day reminder it is for us to know that in YOUR life, you have seen it to be true. He’s faithful. He provides. He shows up. He doesn’t bail.

                This verse has always been a song to me, but in this week’s reading, it suddenly became so much more. He is SO faithful. If you’ve seen that to be true in your life (and I know you have), say it. Say it out loud. Encourage those coming behind you!