Language Lab: What Is A “testimony”?

Language Lab: What Is a “Testimony”?

Bible Blast: Read John 3:1-15

I assure you, we tell you what we know and have seen, and yet you won’t believe our testimony. John 3:11

The courtroom is tense. The judge is tapping his fingers on his desk in deep thought. An attorney calls an older lady to the witness stand. The witness raises her right hand and swears to tell “the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help me, God.”

Once she is seated, she leans toward the microphone and begins to tell everything she saw when she just happened to be on site during a crime. She gives vivid details of what she heard and experienced, helping the others to see the scene in their minds.

She gives her testimony.

Jesus actually gives the definition of a testimony in today’s focus verse. When someone gives a testimony, she tells others what she knows and what she has seen. In a courtroom situation, a person’s testimony has the power to send someone to jail or set him free. That’s a lot of power, isn’t it? In God’s Kingdom, a person’s testimony has the power to overcome the devil (see Revelation 12:11). That’s even more power!

When a person speaks about what she’s seen God do, it chases away darkness and confusion. It also causes people who don’t know Christ to think about his power and his ability to save them.

When we “share a testimony,” it doesn’t have to be about the day we asked Jesus into our hearts. Testimonies can be about anything God has done for us. If you tell a friend how God protected you from a really mean dog, that’s a testimony. If your mom tells your aunt that when she couldn’t find her keys, she prayed and God showed her where they were, that’s a testimony. If you’ve been having bad dreams and you ask God to take them away and replace them with good dreams, and he does, tell someone about it. Share that testimony.

You never have to be afraid to testify to your friends about Jesus. Just tell them what he’s done for you. If you talk about what you’ve seen God do, he’ll take care of the rest.

Girl Gab: Mom, tell your daughter a testimony of what you’ve seen God do. Now, Daughter, do the same thing for your mom. Is there someone you want to share that story with today? Ask God for the opportunity to talk to that person and ask him to prepare her heart to see the truth of God in your testimony.