Lately I have wondered why we do not have slots for testimonies in the house of the Lord. I am very positive it is one of the reasons why we have many anxious believers. The bible says, ‘And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the words of their testimonies and they did not love their lives to the death’ Rev.12:11.
The recent very much publicised marriage of Gifty Anti at the age of 45 confirmed to me why there is so much unbelief in the body of Christ. The fact that she went public with something so personal has renewed hope in the lives of a lot of women. Social media was bursting at the seems with a lot of comments and one that I can remember so well is ‘What if she had rushed to have a child just because she felt she was growing old’
I observed that a lot of people saw her marriage as a rare occurrence because of her age; honestly the reaction of the public to this beautiful news was a great eye-opener for me. I remember commenting to a friend that ‘what is the bruhaha about, why are people shocked to see her getting married, she is a beautiful, intelligent, accomplished woman with a strong faith in Christ so as for me I knew it was just a matter of time before the right man identified that’; then my friend responded ‘Emefa, the circle you move in is different oh, such stories are common place for you but for many people, this is a miracle’ That set me thinking hard because many of these Ghanaians are church goers, yet the church has scheduled out testimony time from their programs. Even in churches where this is the practice, very little time is allocated to it making people, to rush through the testimonies. I understand that some people just come and wind long tales but a system can be put in place to cut that out and allow really genuine people who have testimonies to share enough time to share them because sometimes the miracle is not necessarily the end story but the whole journey.
As I thought about the reaction to Oheneyire Gifty Anti’s news, I became even more burdened that the church needs to bring back testimony time to encourage the brethren in their walk with God. God has been doing a lot for His people, it is just that the platform is not given to share these testimonies. The result is many people are discouraged in the Body thinking God is not able to do what He has promised, when people are sitting on their testimonies in those same congregations.
Another reason why we should encourage testimonies in Christian gatherings today is so we can leave a good legacy for the next generation. Already we have a new generation of women who have believed the lie that they have to go through cesarean section to birth their babies. Some have been fed with so much fear from the doctors that, they elect to have surgery to take the baby out, especially among the educated elite in the cities. Meanwhile, I have heard many stories where doctors predict that women cannot give birth naturally due to age and they have given birth, in fact some women rush to marry for the fear that once they hit their thirties, childbirth will be difficult.
There is so much fear, anxiety about marriage, late marriage, not finding the right one, not having a child, spouses not changing, etc etc. The latest in the fear/anxiety/panic series is that you must give birth in the 1st year of your marriage for the fear that you might not have a child soon enough. Many people have murdered their marriages on the alter of fear as they rush to have children without really having fun and getting to know each other well for at least a year (What happened to and the just shall live by faith?). Then children set in with responsibilities and then those whose foundations were already shaky start giving way under the pressure that having young children brings into a marriage.
The issue of not having testimony time in our churches is gone beyond, ‘we don’t have time’ we need to make the time because many people are compromising God’s standards because they have lost hope. For those of us who have been sitting on our testimonies, lets repent from today and share them when the time comes so God’s children can find hope. We have to be conscious of the fact that it is not about us. It is about the larger picture; the Christian journey is not easy at all and who knows, perhaps it is your testimony that will make a difference in someone’s life.
Let us together from today pray that the doors of our Christian gatherings will open once again to testimonies and also that people will be bold to share their testimonies to glorify God and to strengthen the brethren.
Have a blessed week!
Emefa Gadze
emefagadze 