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"But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life."
(Titus 3:4-7)
Did you know that your testimony is in the Bible? Yes, you! I read it today, right there on the page. In fact you just read it too. These verses from the book of Titus describe the testimony of every believer in Jesus Christ. Yesterday was the bad news part: we are all sinners. Today comes the good news part! Jesus has saved us according to His mercy, made us pure and new, gave us the Holy Spirit, justified us before the Father, adopted us as His children, and given us eternal hope! Wow! There is so much to be grateful for in these verses.
There are few things that bother me more in Christian circles than when people say they have a boring testimony. How can you read these verses and say that your testimony is boring?! I know that people who say this are often comparing their stories with those have come out of very serious sin problems or systems of false beliefs, like the drug addict radically saved just when they were on the brink, the Muslim girl who escaped her home country because she was being pursued for her life because she had a Bible and was questioning her religion, or the atheist who loved to debate Christians and "prove them wrong" who had a real encounter with the Lord while attending a church intending to just make fun of it.
I know people who have stories like these. In fact, the last one is mine. These stories are amazing and wonderful to hear. They remind us that nobody we meet is too far gone.
On first glance, many might say they have a boring testimony because they are comparing their life experiences to these "crazier" stories they hear. I think, however, that deeper down, the problem lies in that we really don't understand just how desperate our situation was before God. Before our salvation, we all were separated from God (Isaiah 59:2), enemies of God (Romans 5:10) and spiritually dead (Ephesians 2:1). Now, as we see from these verses in Titus, we are forgiven, justified, loved, adopted, renewed, born again. It is simply not true of any Christian that before they were saved they "weren't that bad". Before a Holy God, each stood no chance. So how did we get from such a seemingly hopeless state to such an amazing one? A miracle. That's how. Your salvation was a miracle. Read through these verses from Titus one more time, slowly. Pray and thank God for each amazing thing He has done for you in your miraculous, totally-not-boring salvation, as you read it in the passage.
Let me be clear: you once were dead—spiritually dead. Now, you are alive in Christ. There is nothing boring about that.
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