From Stumbling Block to Witness

• By candidasullivan
• September 8, 2025
• No Comments

When we get saved, we no longer fit into the things of this world. Certain spaces and places no longer feel right. God has shown me this truth more than once.

The first time was when I was a teenager. I was out with friends, sipping drinks and chatting, when one of the guys, who didn’t know the Lord, began asking me questions about God. He said he’d been thinking about going to church and knew my daddy was a preacher.

I didn’t want to talk about God. With a drink in my hand and ugly words on my lips, conviction swept over me. I realized the light inside me, the one meant to guide others to Christ, was barely flickering. In that moment, I wasn’t leading my friend to the Lord — I was being a stumbling block. My actions represented the enemy, not my Savior.

Something shifted that day. I knew I wanted my words and actions to be a testimony for God. But life had to fall apart first before I fully returned to Him. For years, the weight of not being able to help my friend stayed with me. I begged God for another chance.

Years later, I sat beside that same friend in church. I told him how sorry I was for failing him that day. And I got to witness his salvation and baptism. I didn’t deserve that mercy, but God gave it anyway.

The second time was at a bar, watching a band. I wasn’t drinking, but the whole time I felt condemned for being there. God whispered to my heart, Are you letting your light shine? If others followed your example, where would you lead them? I got up and walked out.

Through these experiences, God taught me the importance of separating myself from things that contradict my beliefs. People are watching us. When we are saved, we become the church, and we take God everywhere we go. I didn’t feel right taking Him into the bar.

We can’t live perfectly, but we can strive to be a light to those in darkness. The enemy will say, It’s fine, everyone does it. But we don’t belong to the enemy. We belong to God, and He has chosen us to be His witnesses.

It’s my responsibility to keep myself unspotted from the world. If I hurt my witness, I need to admit I was wrong. I don’t ever want to be the reason someone misses their chance to know the Lord.

James 1:27 KJV

Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.