On Wednesday, I was sharing with the prayer team a few testimonies that I had heard from right here within our church body. There seems to be a nice groundswell of God breaking through in power in people's lives. As I was sharing, I realized that even though the little prayer team has been tirelessly praying for these breakthroughs, the only way they ever get to hear of the fruit of their prayers is when I happen to bring up the stories.
At another time I shared a few of these stories with a new member of the church. His fresh take on hearing amazing stories of redemption, healing, and deliverance was eye-opening to me. He said, "Wait, we need to celebrate this. We need to have food and songs and a party!" Honestly, he's totally right. Believe it or not, we already have something like that on the calendar. We call it Stories and Songs. It's a time to gather, share stories, and sing praises to God.
Here's the problem we've faced every year. Right around October every year, the staff sits around and racks our brains to remember some stories from the past year. Instead, what we should do is send out a call for stories now. What are the wonderful things God has done that the body needs to hear about? (I already know a LOT of them, but it's better when you tell your own story)
Fortunately, our church majors is humility, and no one seems to be out to make a name for themselves. That's a very good thing, BUT it comes with an unintended drawback. In an an attempt to live quite humble lives, we end up not sharing some stories that would really bless the body to hear. After all, king David says this about his own story:
9 I have told the glad news of deliverance
in the great congregation;
behold, I have not restrained my lips,
as you know, O LORD.
10 I have not hidden your deliverance within my heart;
I have spoken of your faithfulness and your salvation;
I have not concealed your steadfast love and your faithfulness
from the great congregation." (Ps 40:9-10)
Do you have a story that would bring glory to God that you need to tell? Respond to this email and let's get the ball rolling. I'd like to get them recorded.
______________
Here's one extremely important part of this that I don't want anyone to miss. We love the stories of breakthrough, but that's only half of what I'm looking for. Another kind of story that is powerful in a different but maybe MORE important way is the story of pain, sorry, and loss where God sustained you. Faith doesn't look like always getting what you're asking for. Faith looks like hanging on to the hope of Jesus despite the outcome. If you need biblical proof of that, just ask Hebrews 11.
I want to hear all of our stories. In fact, I've already heard many of them, but I want the rest of the church to hear these stories as well.
Much Love
Dustin
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