“Now then, tell my servant David,” God told the prophet Nathan, “This is what the Lord Almighty says: I took you from the pasture, from tending the flock, and appointed you ruler over my people Israel. I have been with you wherever you have gone” (1 Chronicles 17:7-8).
In other words, “David, don’t ever forget where you came from, that it was I who chose you to do what you are doing!”
In some ways, we need to forget the past, at least not “dwell on the past” (Isaiah 43:18), yet we need never to forget how the Lord Himself has redeemed us.
Late in Paul’s life he describes his past as “the worst of sinners” (1 Timothy 1:16). With Peter, I don’t think he ever forgot how he denied the Lord, or how unbelieving Thomas was about Jesus’ resurrection. Paul listed a catalog of sins when writing to the Corinthians saying, “Such were some of you” (1 Corinthians 6:11), and John said that one of the ways we triumph over the enemy is “by the word of [our] testimony” (Revelation 12:11).
Testimonies are powerful evangelistic tools. Testimonies like Dennis Jernigan and Rosaria Butterfield (both of whom came out of homosexual lifestyles) or Tass Saada’s Once an Arafat Man, or Lee Strobel’s The Case for Christ (coming to faith from atheism) are greatly used of the Lord.
But you, too, have a testimony. Don’t forget who you were before Jesus captured your heart, or who you would be without Him. Think about them. Write them down tonight. And don’t hesitate to share it if it can help others.