How To Unlock The Power Of Your Story
Knowing and sharing our story is a part of God's plan to use every follower of Jesus to change the world.
Our biggest challenge is the false view that a powerful life-change story must involve spectacular sins, terrible hardships, and miraculous moments. The truth is that going from being dead in our sins to being alive in Christ is amazing enough.
Your Story Is Your Most Powerful Tool
Heart change, not epic circumstances, make our stories powerful. Specifically, it is the drama of repentance: How we come to discover in ways large and small that we must turn away from the sin of trusting in ourselves and instead turn toward the grace of depending on God in faith for our every need.
The story of the Gerasenes Demoniac in Mark 5 outlines the clearest, simplest formula for what makes a glorifying, powerful story that will change people's lives. Jesus tells the man who is set free from his hellish torture at the hands of demons, "Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how He has had mercy on you" (Mark 5:19).
Jesus Is The Hero Of Our Stories
Our experience of mercy comes in recognizing our brokenness and need of rescue. Our experience of His grace comes in recognizing how much Jesus has done for us. The two combined reveal the heart change that gives all glory to Jesus, and the testimony by which Satan is conquered (Revelation 12:11).
For most people, that drama of heart change is most vivid at the moment of salvation when we receive Jesus' payment for sin and are reborn to eternal life.
However, the process of becoming more like Jesus after we've been saved involves repeated experiences of new repentance and new grace as we realize how much we fall short and how much of God's grace we need to remain in his will and accomplish His purpose.
When we understand the Christian story in this way, we can see that our story isn't limited to the events that led us to make a decision to ask Jesus into our lives. We suddenly see that our lives contain many stories that are seeds of new faith -- for ourselves and for those around us, whether believers or not.
Telling the world of what Jesus has done should never stop at salvation lest we rob Jesus of the glory He properly deserves from all of our lives.
3 Ways To Unlock The Power Of Your Story
- Writing out your salvation story, focusing on how you came to understand your need of Jesus and what He has done for you since you surrendered your life to him.
- Examining your last step of faith or a step of faith you are considering, and think about it through the lens of your need to grow closer to Jesus and the grace that you encounter in Him.
- Practice telling people about your story or share it with NewSpring at www.newspring.cc/mystory.