If we have dark chapters in our experience, let us not keep their memory fresh by repetition. Forgetting the things that are behind, let us press forward to the things that are before. Cultivate only those thoughts and feelings which produce gratitude and praise. If you have been wronged, forget it, and think only of the great mercy, the loving-kindness, the inexpressible love of Jesus. Learn to praise rather than to censure. If you meet with insult and abuse, do not become discouraged, for Jesus met the same. Go forward, doing your work with fidelity. Store the mind with the precious promises of God's word, and hold sweet communion with him by frequently repeating them. Cease fretting, cease murmuring, cease finding fault, and make melody to God in your hearts. Think of everything you have to be thankful for, and then learn to praise God. "Whoso offereth praise glorifieth God."

If all our mourning, and fretting, and complaining were presented before us as written in the book of records, what a sight would we behold! How astonished we would be to see and understand our real thoughts and feelings-- naught but unhappy complainings.

I entreat you never to utter one word of complaint. Weave into the warp and woof of your experience the golden threads of gratitude. Contemplate the better land, where tears are never shed, where temptations and trials are never experienced, where losses and reproaches are never known, where all is peace, and joy, and happiness. Here your imagination may have full scope. These thoughts will make you more spiritually minded, will imbue you with heavenly vigor, will satisfy your thirsty soul with living water, and will impress upon your heart the seal of the divine image. You will be filled with hope and joy in believing, and the Comforter will abide with you forever.

Signs Of The Times
September 27, 1883 par. 16-18

How does a person combine not thinking about where they've been/what they've done, with the advice of Jesus to the demoniac to go tell people what He did for him? To give one's testimony??

That has been a problem for me. I try and forget what I was/where I was, but then I also forget to thank God that THAT is not who, where, and what I am now.

One can give praise to Jesus without the details of one's life.

Sometimes it is best not to share those.

We may not need to constantly live in our past.

charis I can remember a friend a years back who yes had been treated bad. And she let everyone know it. All the time whenever you saw her. Common sense would tell you that this is not good for yourself or for anyone else. Yes it is only human to cry out to others when we have been hurt and wronged. But after so long we need to get past this and not drag out that old "garbage". If we would truly bow down to God in prayer He will give us the victory to be at peace with all that has happened and will happen to us. Do we really belive what the scriptures tell us?

Psa 119:165 Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them.

Then what exactly is a testimony? Is it not sharing where you've been and what God has done for a person? THAT is what I have been told over and over. ....Only to be saying *well, God has done this wonderful thing for me" or *that wonderful thing for me* seems ...well...it seems a bit trite to me atm without saying what the circumstances of one's life were aforehand.

So how can one give praise to Jesus in a meaningful way to others - and not just Christians - without talking about one's past? ::ponders:: I suppose the longer a person is a Christian, the easier that might be.. dunno...

sometimes it would just be nice to have a sign pointing which is the *right* way to do things and which is not..

I guess the testimony would depend on who you are your testimony to and the circumstance/s.

There may be a time to share where Christ has brought you from, and other times simply where He has takewn you to.

Taking charis example of the demoniac, lets consider two scenarios.

The former demoniac may say:
#1) I was made free
#2) I was a demoniac and then I was made free

Which of these are the most meaningfull? In the first example, "I was made free", the expected followup question everywhere (except maybe in church on witnessing time) would be, oh yea? from what?

I think this is quite different from Avalees example of a person who appears unable to let go of her past. If she would say "I was made free" during a vitnessing hour in church, from what I see in the description made, she would be lying.

Gregory I would agree with. One can praise Jesus for who He is and the mighty deeds He has done. But that would not exclude praising Jesus for what He has done for me personally. And thanking someone for what one personally recieved would necesitate some sort of referance to it.
I also agree that there are times when it would be better not to share details. But that should not be understood as "details should never be shared".
And no, thanking God for what He has done for Me once in a while does not equal constantly living in the past.

/Thomas

ps, that some beautiful lines there in Psalm 62 charis.

Using the demoniac example, there isn't anything wrong saying that I was a demoniac and Christ saved me, however, saying I was a demoniac and going into detail about my life as a demoniac wouldn't be the way to go. Going into detail about my new life in Christ would be the uplifting way to go.

Daryl has hit it on the head.

One does not have to share the sinful details of one's life. Yet, onc can speak of what God has done for them.

And that differs from charis point exactly how?