I’VE WITNESSED IT
From Passion Worship
link to worship song https://youtu.be/H5xH9ZUTLsM
Unless we’re talking about our favorite true crime podcast or courtroom drama, we don’t often use the word “witness” in our everyday vernacular. It may feel a bit antiquated or like a word only evangelists use when they are encouraging us to share our faith. However, Eugene Peterson says “A witness is never the center but only the person who points to or names what is going on at the center…” And Paul tells us in Colossians 1:15-17 that, “the Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.”
With this information, one could say that not only are we all witnesses, but it’s why we were created — to give praise and honor and glory to the only one worthy of all of it, Jesus Christ.
Witness implies presence. It means we can find God in our own story — His faithfulness, His goodness, His love, His forgiveness, His presence. And on the days, weeks, months, or years when it’s difficult to remember, we do what the people of God have done for centuries— we sing. We sing to remind our souls of the character of the One we worship and to help resuscitate a faith in desperate need of hope.
And as those who are not without hope, we testify to what we have seen and heard. We tell our stories. The language of story is powerful and often conveys a truth that could not be conveyed in another way.
Paul is telling the story of his encounter with Jesus when he says this in Acts 22:14-16, “Then he said: ‘The God of our ancestors has chosen you to know his will and to see the Righteous One and to hear words from his mouth. You will be his witness to all people of what you have seen and heard. And now what are you waiting for? Get up, be baptized, and wash your sins away, calling on his name’.”
When you discover the cure, when you find the answer, when you uncover hope and the way to life you don’t just keep it to yourself. You want everyone to know – you become a witness to He who is at the center!
Let these truths illuminate memories of God’s faithfulness in your story that have been hiding in the shadows, let them put words of hope in your mouth on your darkest days, and encourage you to testify of the hope you’ve found to those desperately looking for home. His name is Jesus.