Weekend, September 3, 2022
Tests Can Become a Testimony
“He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us.” (2 Corinthians 1:4 NLT)
During my childhood, I lived with various members of my extended family because of my unstable home life. I spent some of that time with my grandparents, which was probably one of the most stable times in my life because they functioned as my parents.
But my grandparents were parents from another century. They were already quite old when I was living with them, and they had old-fashioned values. We would sit in their living room and watch a man on television whom I later discovered was Billy Graham.
My grandparents also had a little painting depicting Jesus hanging on the wall of their home. I remember looking at that picture for hours, just thinking about Him. There was something about Jesus that piqued my interest. How was I to know that I would later enter into a relationship with Him and that He would change my life forever?
So, despite the hardship I experienced as a young boy, I was able to react to it in a different way. And at the age of 17, I put my faith in Jesus Christ.
We can’t control all the circumstances of our lives, but we can control how we will react to them. And no matter how bad our upbringing was or what we have gone through, God can take our setbacks and turn them into setups. He can effectively turn our pain into gain. He can turn our tests into testimony.
I have been able to take the pain of my past and use it as a tool to help people who are experiencing similar pain. The apostle Paul wrote that God “comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others” (2 Corinthians 1:4 NLT).
What we’ve gone through wasn’t designed to destroy us but to make us the person God wants us to be, a truly happy person.
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