How can God use me? I am not perfect and I’m not always in His will for my life. The thinking that we have that follows this line of thought is wrong. No one besides Jesus could be this way. God loves us regardless of our flaws. He knew us long before we were ever born and He still determined that we would be useful in His Kingdom. That is why you were called to become a Christian in the first place.
Becoming a Christian is not something that happens because you decide to do so. You only get to the point of knowing you need Jesus because God has placed enough faith in your heart to show you that you need Him. All of us have to live our lives on a daily basis and it is the conviction of the Holy Spirit that shows us that we can’t live the Christian life without Jesus as our Savior. It has nothing to do with our weaknesses because there isn’t a person on Earth that can live a real Christian life and follow Jesus without the Holy Spirit.
All of us have cracks and flaws and warts, spiritually, but God never called perfect people! He always called normal, everyday people like Peter, James, and John. His disciples weren’t superstars. They were normal people like us but when the Holy Spirit came into their lives they became bold witnesses of Jesus and His message and they began the work that He had told them to begin after He left and went to be with the Father.
None of those who have believed in the past could’ve had the witness that they did without the Holy Spirit working in their lives. Even the so-called “super preachers” of the last 150 years could not live and be the person that God called them to be without the Holy Spirit working through them. Their preaching would not have had the same impact that it had and they could not have been as successful with their ministry without Him. God can use even the most unlikely of people and circumstances to bring His will to pass.
Can you be used in God’s Kingdom in a mighty way? Yes, if you will surrender to His call in your life and allow the Holy Spirit to work in you and through your words and your witness so others will see Jesus rather than you. This is what Jesus meant when He told the disciples that they would do greater things than He had done because the effect of their preaching would be more far-reaching than He could do in only three years.
The time that this world has left is growing short so I pray that you will give your life and your heart to Jesus if you haven’t already. Follow Him daily, reading His Word and praying because one day soon He will come for His bride.
They also that render evil for good Are mine adversaries; because I follow the thing that good is. Forsake me not, O LORD: O my God, be not far from me. Make haste to help me, O Lord my salvation. Psalm 38:20-22 KJV https://bible.com/bible/1/psa.38.20-22.KJV
Does this sound like today’s news? Calling good evil and evil good is the condition of the world that Jesus foretold about this time prior to His coming for the church. His second coming, when He puts His feet on the Mount of Olives, won’t happen until the end of the Tribulation. God has not forsaken us and He has not forgotten anyone but He also will not tolerate sinful lifestyles and actions. You can choose to believe what God’s Word says or you can say it is just an old book, but you will be judged by the Word if you have not accepted Jesus as your Savior and changed your ways.
Can you be useful to God when you feel broken? Many of us are actually broken in some way. It may not be a brokenness of spirit but it could be because of personal tragedies. So…could you be useful to God’s Kingdom even though you are broken?
Most of us could even if we don’t feel like being useful. Most of the time, when we are broken, our spirit is broken and our emotions feel all mixed up during this broken time. God refers to us as vessels of His Spirit and vessels should be useful but if they are cracked they can’t hold much. The vessel will leak.
Whenever God calls you and you feel broken would you answer His call? You are being called by God so the task can only be accomplished by you. If you are feeling like you can’t do it because something is missing in your life or in your walk with Him…God can fix that part and give you the ability to accomplish the task at hand. Your emotional baggage and your depression and brokenness should bring you closer to God.
All of us are broken in some way and it doesn’t take a genius to know this in our world today. With the pandemic and the wars and all of the other problems like inflation and high fuel prices, how could we NOT be broken in one way or another? So much uncertainty and anxiety about all kinds of problems that most of us can’t fix in our daily lives can cause even more of the same. It just keeps repeating.
Compounding the problems around us is the media’s ignoring signs that life is not getting better but more complicated. Then there is all of the social media drama that keeps cropping up about one thing or another that has no real meaning in the long run. Life at the point that we are living in right now has more than enough “drama” without the nit-picking stuff that shows up on Twitter or Facebook.
There are days that I would like to go back to the days when we had AOL and email and that’s it! No cell phones, no Twitter, no Facebook, no TikTok. Granted, the generation that has grown up since 2007 could not handle being without a cell phone. But, we could truly do without most of the social media that it seems everyone obsesses over today. All of the angst that people have to handle from life itself is enough without adding to being socially acceptable and not hurting someone’s feelings.
Consider the day when the Trumpet sounds and the church is taken up to be with Him in Heaven…social media won’t matter at all on that day. There isn’t a single story or tweet or post of any kind that will be taken into Heaven and your status or how many “friends” you had on Facebook or Twitter won’t matter one bit.
The only friendship that will matter is the one that you have with Jesus. If you don’t know Him as your Savior and He doesn’t know you, then you won’t be taken up into the clouds. Knowing about Jesus will not save you. Being a member of a certain church won’t provide entry into Heaven. Only belief in Jesus as your Savior and a life that reflects a change in your heart will make a difference. So, if you don’t know Him yet I suggest you need to search Him out in the Bible, pray and ask Him to come into your heart and repent of your sinful life today! Not tomorrow or next week because none of us is guaranteed even to wake up in the morning. Make sure of your salvation before it is too late.
What kind of question is that? What do you mean?
I don’t mean have you heard about Him or even accepted Him as your Savior. I do mean, “Have you had an encounter with Him?”
We go through life every day passing by people on the road and on the sidewalk…but we don’t know them. We may never know who they are even if we pass them for many days or weeks or even years. But, what about Jesus? Do you just pass by Him in church? Hearing messages about Him but not really getting to know Him. You might ask me, “How am I supposed to get to know Him?”. By surrendering your heart to Him and reading the gospels about Him and what He did. That is the best way to get to know Him and actually have an encounter with Him.
Some of you might say, “I don’t need Him. Not right now, I’m too busy to worry about my salvation”. Do you truly believe that you have many more months or years ahead of you? Not one person on the Earth knows if they will wake up tomorrow morning…not even you or me. So, how can you just push Him or even the experience of Him away so easily?
We are living at the end of the church age. Jesus could come to take the church, those who have given their hearts to Him, at any time. He has loved all of humanity since the very beginning, although He has not loved their sinful ways. Can you say for certain that you will be a part of the church, the Bride of Christ when He comes to take her to His Father’s house? If you are not sure, then you need to make sure.
Jesus looked at those He ministered to with a love that we can’t understand because it didn’t require anything from those He was ministering to. He didn’t need money or jewels or a home. He already had access to all of that and more. God doesn’t require anything from us except our obedience and our devotion. No amount of work is needed for us to be saved from hell. Only our belief in Jesus and our repentance, turning away, from our sins. Why does an encounter with Him seem to frighten people away?
It could be that the price of following Him is too high. How could that be? He doesn’t require you to spend your entire savings to follow Him. All He asks for is your heart and your belief in Him to be His disciple. Then go and tell others what He has done for you. It’s not required but your testimony to others will show how much He has done for you and maybe they will want Him as their Savior as well. The blind men that He healed only asked for their sight back and He healed their blindness. He also gave them “spiritual eyes” to see Who He was and to know that they needed to follow Him and they did.
With everything that is happening in the world today, we need a Savior in more ways than we know. The Savior that can give you an eternal place in Heaven is Jesus Christ. Seek Him while there is time.
We want to ask this especially when we are going through a tough time. The bills can’t be paid because the money isn’t there. You can’t buy groceries, again, because of no money. You get a diagnosis that frightens you and surprises you at the same time…so when will You show up in all of this, God?
The days that we are living in and through today bring questions like this to mind. We may not voice them aloud but they are there. There is something that we need to remember in all of this: God is always here with us. He knows when a sparrow falls, so don’t you think He knows when you are having trouble? Even if you haven’t given your life to Him yet, He still knows and He is never more than a prayer away.
God loves every one of us. He loves us even more than we think anyone could and He does. So, why do we feel alone and abandoned at times? Don’t blame it on Him because He hasn’t moved. Most of our loneliness comes when we either push Him away or we don’t invite Him into our problems. We think that He isn’t interested. Realize this: If God knows how many hairs are on your head, don’t you think He cares about every other part of your life? God knows you and me far better than we know ourselves.
Your life is precious to God and He wants to treat you as such but when most people don’t believe in Him as their Savior why should you receive any help from the God that you don’t believe in? Many of us have made “god” in our image and that is the god that we worship, even in church. He is not judgmental. He doesn’t require us to do anything for His Kingdom. We have created an idol with our idea of who god is and we have placed him in a box to be brought out when we want him and need him. That is not God the Creator and Father of Jesus.
We have to follow our Savior, Jesus, every day. Make sure you read the Bible so you will know exactly Who you are following and why. God loves you!
The Living Message of Christ 