Test or Testimony? God’s Call or Yours?

By James Washington
Special to the NNPA from the Houston Forward Times

These days it’s easy pretty easy to get down in the dumps about your particular situation or circumstance even if you’re a devout Christian. Being a Christian does not guarantee a life void of trial and tribulation.

As a matter of fact, being a Christian is tantamount to sending VIP invitations to Mr. Temptation and Ms. Test. The small but important point I’m making is not about anything other than what I believe is the key to getting through it all and maintaining a sense of inner peace that God is always in your life. No matter the situation, He will never abandon you regardless of how lonely life gets or appears to be. I liken it to pushing a huge rock uphill. On many a day that rock becomes a boulder and that hill transforms into a very steep and treacherous mountain.

At these times, one must recognize that were it not for God’s presence in your life, that rock would push you and the hill would turn to quicksand. It’s all in your attitude. I admit it’s easy to get down when you are a believer. But because you’re a believer, it should impossible to stay down. I went to two different churches recently where members were allowed to give testimony and request prayer. One was very large and high tech and those who spoke of their real life journeys to Christ by concluding that “Jesus is more than a story.”

Each testimony of Christ’s reality in changing a life forced me to rethink my own situation and conclude, I have no right to be down. Heaven, I’m blessed. In the other much smaller and more intimate church, member after member told stories of specific trials and tests and the need for prayer; from family situations in which a six month old died prematurely and a seven year old from cancer, to a person so allergic to life that the smell of perfume would cause excruciating pain and a life of seclusion. I have no right to be down.

Heaven I’m blessed. I pass these stories along because in all instances the people involved found a way to cope, to live, to survive. Remember every testimony was relayed in church as an acknowledgement of the power and love of the Lord through whom all blessings flow. Every story was an entreaty for prayer and a profession of faith. Real Christians…real life…the real world.

I just thought I’d take this opportunity to let you know that my real world, no matter how messed up can be and has been, is never as bad as it could be without the love of the Lord in my heart, the faith of Jesus Christ in spirit and the invitation to the Holy Spirit to ride shotgun with me wherever I go. I don’t have room to insert Psalm 23 here but read it today. Look around your valley of death and fear no evil. Bathe in the grace of God. As the kids say, ‘you better recognize.’ Recognize and be blessed. This I ask for you in Jesus’ name.

May God bless and keep you always.

James,  jaws@dallasweekly.com