I used to think that I didn’t have a testimony. I felt like since I wasn’t dramatically delivered from drugs and alcohol or brought back to life after flatlining on a table somewhere, I didn’t really have a salvation story to tell.

One problem with that kind of testimony is that it makes salvation a past tense experience, as in I got saved back when. The Biblical idea of salvation is that you were saved (justification), you’re being saved (sanctification), and you will be saved (glorification). In other words, it’s a one-time event with ongoing results leading to a final destination.

My testimony is that I got saved at an early age and that God is still in the process of making me a new creation. It’s not once I was lost and now I’m found and life is perfect and pain-free. It’s about putting off the old sinful self, being renewed, and putting on the new Christ-dwelling self.

If you have truly had a salvation experience, there should be a difference. There should be a before and an after. I don’t mean that you’re perfect but that you’re striving and seeking to be more like Jesus because the Spirit of Jesus is in you working in you to want these things.

If you truly belong to Jesus, you won’t look like those around you who aren’t saved. You won’t act and talk like them. If the only difference is that you throw in a nod to Jesus and church in your conversations every now and then, you might want to question the validity of your faith. The Bible calls that working out your salvation with fear and trembling. It’s making sure that you are good soil for the gospel to take root, go deep, and produce a harvest.

True faith means that you want more than anything else to obey Jesus. It doesn’t mean that you never disobey or sin, but that you can’t live in disobedience and have peace. You can’t live in sin and live for Jesus at the same time.

The good news is that God always reward those who seek Him in genuine faith. If you earnestly and honestly want to follow Jesus, He will give you the ability to follow — and most importantly, to obey.