Useable

Ezekiel 36:23 “And I will sanctify my great name, which was profaned among the heathen, which ye have profaned in the midst of them; and the heathen shall know that I am the LORD, saith the Lord GOD, when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes.”

Sometimes I wonder “Why?”

Why would God leave the most important tasks on the face of the earth to sinful man?

He makes us His ambassadors.

2 Corinthians 5:20 “Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.”

He commands us to be His witnesses to a lost and dying world.

Acts 1:8 “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.”

He gave to His children the job of carrying the gospel to the uttermost parts of the earth. He put in our hands the most potent, the most powerful, life-changing, life-transforming truth.

He called us, commissioned us and commanded us to go.

But, before He did, he saved me.

I, first, had to come to a realization that I am a sinner in need of a Savior. Here is where we begin to fail at carrying out the command to be His ambassador.

We forget what God saved us from.

We accept salvation, see and feel the transforming power within us and for a time, we are on fire for God. In any part of growth, there has to be a demonstration of desire to go further. Our enemy gets us to feel comfortable; self-satisfied. We see great things happen and falsely take the credit.

We begin to operate in the flesh and grow more comfortable doing God’s work without Him. We take the credit and forget to give God the glory He so rightly deserves.

Slowly, the fruit wanes and then we make excuses why we aren’t as excited, as passionate; as ‘on fire’ as before.

Sin has crept in and we slowly become numb to its effects.

We mistake God’s longsuffering with our sin for His approval of our sin and continue down a path God never intended you and I to go.

All the while, people are watching.

They are watching because they are longing to see something real; something lasting; something worthy of their trust.

Our words and our witness will carry no power whatsoever if they do not have the action to back it up.

If we talk of love, peace and mercy, we must demonstrate it to the extreme. Otherwise, we talk a good game, but are as hypocrites to those who need to see God do something real.

We can claim our humanity as our excuse for failure, but we fail to realize that God gave us the power to have victory over the things; the everday things we struggle with:

Fear

Depression

Worry

Lack of self-worth

Weakness

Unforgiveness

Bitterness

And the list goes on and on…

Soon, we realize our failure to be a good witness and hear the enemies lies that we are no longer worthy to speak out about the wonderful love of God:

“How could you talk about God when you fail Him so miserably?”

“You are such a poor representative”

“You’re a loser!”

Though we agree with the truth of our own failure, we must not give in to the lie that God is through using us.

Thank God for forgiveness!

Through confession and repentance, I can become clean again – useful and ready to be a witness for my King and my God!

The true sticking point is the fact that God’s children need to get the victory over our sin. Most of us, if not all, are brought to a place where we must trust God by faith to supply the power needed to overcome.

Some feel their faith too small. God says:

Matthew 17:20 “And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.”

Others think the sin too powerful. God says:

1 Corinthians 10:13 “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.”

1 Corinthians 15:55-58 “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.”

Some think the victory elusive or ‘not for them’. God says:

Romans 8:37-39 “Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Some think themselves ‘not good enough’, ‘not worthy’, ‘not like the others’. God says:

Romans 2:11 “For there is no respect of persons with God.”

God’s Word has the power to remove any and ALL excuses for us to serve Him!

If you feel you have a case, I can tell you beyond a shadow of a doubt – God’s Word will has the answer! It is about time that God’s children started living and acting like the victors we truly are!

Dear reader, if you are struggling, seek counsel! God never intended His children to live beneath their privilege! You are the King’s son or daughter. Don’t let the devil steal away the fact that you can come to your Heavenly Father for whatever it is that ails you!

Come today – do not wait another moment!