Testimony - Look Up and Rejoice

            I don’t think I have yet to write about an actual personal testimony on my blog. I am going to remedy that right now; something happened to me recently that I’m going to share. Most things I write about on my blog are my thoughts, opinions, etc. but not my personal real-life experiences so... I’m not quite sure how this’ll go, but hopefully it’ll go well enough that you can get something good out of it for yourself.

            During the past few weeks, since thanksgiving, I have been resisting the temptation to go back to one of my old bad habits. I won’t tell you what it is because it’s very personal, but I will tell you that it’s something I have been doing quite habitually for a very long time. On thanksgiving (or maybe the day before) I simply decided to stop doing it. For a day or two it was easy of course, but old habits die hard (Die Hard and Christmas time... interesting... but never mind); after a little while I was tempted quite strongly to go back to it, but day after day I would just say “no” to those old thoughts and feelings and cravings, because I really do have my reasons (good reasons; I’m not just doing this because I think it will make me thinner or give me more time to play computer games).

            On Tuesday, a couple of weeks ago, late at night after my dad had gone to bed, I was tempted again, but this time so insidiously I actually thought that I might go back to that old habit that I really wished I could be rid of for good. My carnal mind was trying to convince and persuade me that it would be alright, that there would be no harm and no foul, and it was doing a really good job of it. But remembering the reasons why I had wanted to let this thing go in the first place (Let It Go... with the arrival of winter, that’s funny... but anyway) I reached out to God for assistance and boy did He deliver (Deliver Us... Prince of Egypt, great movie but... never mind! What is it with my brain and movies right now?). At first, I was just feeling desperate and in great need, begging God to free me from this evil spirit of temptation, though after a moment or two I realized that that is exactly what I should be doing anyway; silly as it might sound (I also know no one can argue against it) it is entirely too easy to fixate on the wrong things in your life that you can forget the good things you have and that can give you strength when you just let them. In that moment I realized God had shown me my way of escape; when the enemy thinks it has you surrounded, just look up. That song (Look Up and Rejoice) actually came to me in that instant and I started singing it quietly to myself, and I didn’t even get through half the lines in the chorus before I realized that the rather heavy spirit of temptation which, just a moment ago, I had thought would claim the victory over me was banished! I had not even noticed its departure; I could only view the temptation-shaped hole in the metaphorical door of my mind (it must have left in a hurry). And just in case you don’t know the song (it’s a good one) this is how it goes:

(the words in parentheses are my thoughts, not actually part of the song)

Look up and rejoice, a new day has begun

(fairly self explanatory)

Look all around you; see what the Lord has done

(He delivered me from an enemy I thought had me surrounded)

He has turned your darkness into his marvelous light

(again, self explanatory)

With the dawning of a new day and a future so bright

(I find that new day part very amusing because it happened at night right before I went to bed)

            Since then, every time my old carnal self tries to rear its ugly head, I just use that as a reminder to pray and rejoice and just make sure my faith is secure in the Lord. It’s remarkably simple but very powerful; just last night, I had a dream conjured up by that old mind, but the new man in me, the one who seeks after the things of God, hated it while it lasted but used it for motivation in the morning to devote this day to God, and so far today has been a very good one. To sum up, I have seen how easy it is to draw upon the Lord’s strength in my moments of weakness, and even turn that dastardly devil’s own devious devices against him.

             That’s my testimony. Well... for the past few weeks, but the grace God gave me at the start is still good today and it is my hope that now you’ve got a hold of some of it as well. Until next time, God bless y’all! And Merry Christmas!