I am useful.

"In a large house there are vessels not only of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay; some are for special purposes and some for common use. ²¹ Those who cleanse themselves from the latter will be instruments for special purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work.  ²² Flee the evil desires of youth and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart."

2 Timothy 2:20-22 

 

Gold & silver or wood & clay...I know which one i'd rather pick.

Vessels are objects designed for the purpose of holding, or containing something. Here, in 2 Timothy, Paul uses an illustration of vessels in a house. I know that my house contains many vessels. For example, a vase to put flowers in, a glass to put a drink in, I even have a penguin hot water bottle to put hot water in. But along with all of those there is also the toilet that all the waste goes in, the rubbish bin where all our rubbish goes, and the sock bin with a multitude of odd socks (pet hate)! So even in my own home, I see that some vessels are for honorable use and some are for dishonorable use.

God has chosen us to be His living vessels. But, because He loves us, He will never force us to be used by Him. He has given us the choice. As vessels, we are designed to be filled. It is up to us what we fill ourselves with. We can either choose for God to fill us by His Holy Spirit and be used for noble purposes or we can choose to be filled with the ways of the world and used for ignoble purposes. The choice is as simple as that.
Ask yourself this; what are you storing in yourself? We are constantly inputting into ourselves - through our eyes and ears. So to fill ourselves with Him we are to read our bibles and fill ourselves with the Word. We are to be in fellowship with God and learn how to have His heart and mind.
However, it's important that we are first clean. As a dirty bowl would contaminate any food put in it, we will contaminate any good thing God wants to use us for if we are not first clean and holy. We do this by getting rid of the 'self'. We die to ourselves and let Christ live in us because the blood of Jesus cleanses us of all unrighteousness. By denying ourselves every day and choosing to be filled with Him we are preparing ourselves to be filled and used by God whenever he wants to use us.

So it all comes down to this; do you want to be a vase or a toilet?
The only thing that makes them what they are is what goes in them. So cleanse yourself from all unrighteousness so that you can be a useful vessel of honour for the purposes of God.

Overcomer

I've noticed that some people have this image of Christians being the people who are untouchable. They are always happy because nothing bad could ever happen to them. They could never be depressed because they have the joy of the Lord. They could never be in need because God provides. They can never have a problem to deal with because God loves them and causes them to be successful in all they do.

Well, it's true - God is and does all of those things. But being a Christian doesn't make us immune to what the world has to throw at us. Jesus tells us that we will face trials.

This false image of being a Christian puts a lot of pressure on a person who is facing a trial in their life. People feel that they have somehow messed up if they are unhappy or they have a problem area. They struggle through by themselves because they dont want to be seen as 'the bad Christian'.

So, i'll share a secret with you. One of the biggest lessons I had to learn growing up, was that sometimes, it's ok to not be ok. I used to be that person who would walk around with a smile on my face yet behind closed doors I was battleing depression. I didn't let anyone in because I didn't want to be the one who was always throwing the pity party. I wanted people to see me as the girl who's always happy and never has a complaint about anything because thats what being a Christian is all about, right? Wrong.

I wasn't going to beat depression by positive thinking and trying to cover it up. The first thing I had to do was recognise that everything was not ok. But, I would be pretty miserable if I just stopped there. The next step was to find the BUT in the situation. This is where it comes in handy to know who Jesus has made me to be. For example, everything is not ok BUT I am an overcomer, I have the Joy of the Lord. I am a child of the King - therefore, I am royalty. And the list goes on. The revelation of who we are in Christ has the power to set us free from every stronghold. You see, it is ok not to be ok aslong as you don't set up camp there. I learnt the power of confession. I learnt to speak life and truth over my life instead of feeding the negative thoughts and situation.

Sometimes we can pray and pray until the cows come home that God will change a situation in our life, but sometimes, I believe that God wants to teach us something through every situation. He doesn't want to just bail us out whenever things get hard. He wants us to learn how to overcome. 1 John 5:4 says "For whatever is born of God overcomes the world." and therefore I have chosen to believe that there is never a bad situation in my life, but simply an opporunity to overcome and step into more of who God has made me to be.

Tough Love.

"I love you and there's nothing you can do about it."

I heard this quoted on Scrubs today and it made me laugh. It was said by a gospel preacher in a lighthearted, fun way (of course, it was scrubs) to a congregation of people, but it was said with a confidence that it was the truth. He had a big grin on his face that made you believe that whatever you did, no matter how much you rejected him, no matter how much you might hurt him, he'd still stand there with that same grin, loving you, until you relent and give him a big hug - and he'll just carry on loving you.

*This is just how it played out in my head*

But this is how God loves us.

God loves you and there's nothing you can do about it.

The amazing thing about Gods love for us is that it is unconditional. That means he loves us without condition. There is nothing that we have to do or can do to earn His love. Not only does he love us unconditionally, His love is relentless. His love never fails and never gives up. So no matter how many times we may fail or dissapoint, reject Him or give up on Him, He'll never give up on us, He'll never stop loving us. Some of us need to realise that it is not actually possible for God to stop loving us. If God were do anything other than love us, he would have to go against His very nature and give up being God. Rest assured, He'll never do that.

Equally, some of us need to understand that this isn't a love that we can walk all over. God is far from a push over - you can't pull the wool over His eyes. If we have a real understanding of His love for us, we can't help but love Him back! Imagine someone telling you they love you and that they'd give everything for you - would you turn your back on them? Thats all He wants - a people that He can love and who will love and obey Him in return.

“This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel
after that time,” declares the LORD.
“I will put my law in their minds
and write it on their hearts.
I will be their God,
and they will be my people." Jeremiah 31:33

He'll never force us to love Him, he won't put pressure on us or manipulate our hearts. He desires a genuine love from His children and so He will love us until we can't do anything but love Him back.

So what if you already know all this and I'm just preaching to the choir?

Well, how about being like that gospel preacher on scrubs?

How many people could you stand infront of and say;

"I love you and there's nothing you can do about it?"

We're called to love as God loves. We love because He first loved us.

There is not a single person in this world who is worthy of Gods love, yet He's made us worthy by choosing to see us through the blood of Jesus. So we can't ever stand infront of any person and deam them unworthy of Gods love because we've all fallen short. It is simply by God's grace that we are able to know such a love. Therefore, there is not a point when someone can do something so awful that God would stop loving them and why should we do any different? If we want the world to know and see Gods love, we need to love with Gods unconditional, relentless love.

There is nothing you can do that will make me stop loving you.