Can anyone shed some light on the difference between fishing in the "sea of forgetfulness " and the act of giving a testimony? Meaning how can one give a testimony without dragging back up the negative effects?

Somewhere in there is probably room to explain the nature of a memorial.

Sharing a testimony is to bring glory to God. It isn’t about you. It’s to glorify God and what he’s done for you so that others may believe. You can lay out the facts of your depravity. But don’t glorify your sin.

Example, I’d have a beer after work and cut loose for celebrations like most of the blue collar, young men I knew did. Never considered myself an alcoholic but certainly had some experiences looking back, I actually was.
But one day I was attending my wife’s church.I was catholic at the time, didn’t share in her pentecostal beliefs. And I was holding my 1 yr old boy and and right in the middle of Sunday morning worship God spoke to me! Clear as bell! He said “quit drinking or it will ruin your family.” And God repeated it another time. It was so clear.
I used to have a hard time not drinking while on call for my job. But after I said “yes” to God that day, He made it easy to quit! Been sober for 8yrs now and I couldn’t be happier. That one small step of obedience to Him changed the rest of my life. God is Good! He still does miracles!

I’m not 100% sure what’s being asked here, but it’s pretty easy to tell when people (even Christians) are glorifying their sinfulness when talking about the past. It’s like it’s something they are proud of and brag about. If you are asking the question you are probably going to do a good job of not glorifying the sin while giving your testimony.

Not sure you should ever forget life experiences i believe there is a difference of being proud of what you did and knowing what God turn you away from. a testimony is a look at what a God did for me. This is a way to allow Gods glory to shine through you, a way to reach the world through experiences. People struggle and they need some one to help them through that actually been through what they are experiencing, I've never been an acholoic or done drugs, I cant personally help, more times then not if I did try it would seem more like picking, judging and preaching and that does more harm then good. Can't bring people down further than what they are, not what God attended. But I have a brother in law that was into drugs bad. But God took over his life, and now he had a reach out program for addiction that he preaches and runs. He talks they listen because he has been through it they know he has struggled, and now they see where he is in life, and why and who changed it.

When you take in Gods spirit and get saved you become a minister of God, testimonies are just one way to minister his word through experiences you had, not meant to be forgotten, but also not meant to be idolized, only meant as a reminder to you and everyone else that you are born again, new man that never wants to go back that path because God himself helped me and chose me to get way from the wickedness that would do nothing but caused me death.

Wow, these responses are great ! Anybody else, keep them coming.

Not so sure about that. I think rather than glorifying their past sins, they are explaining what a miserable wretch they were back then. As in, that was then, this is now. I know that's how I look at my life.

I was saying that it’s easy to tell the difference in what you are referencing and what is reveling in their past sins. I work with a guy who claims Christianity, but if you bring up the manhood of his youth he proudly relives the many stories of the women he conquered across the globe during his military service. Always a smile on his face and a pride in his voice. It’s very easy to contrast that with someone who doesn’t go into detail and just gives vague, remorseful statements about their past

If God was small enough for us to understand, he wouldnt be big enough for us to worship.

I still do the things I would not. Thank God for giving us redemption through his son Jesus.
And thank Jesus for standing in the place of those that receive his loving sacrifice.

Seems to me most of us look better with our clothes on.

No fishing if the pond is posted.

People can't read. That is why we now have purple paint !

Herod and his men broke into Davids tomb and some were killed. Guess it was Gods' fault for not having it posted, lol.