A Tool In God's Hands预览

A Call to Service

It is a wonderful thought to be used mightily by God. To be highly esteemed by fellow Christians and rise to a position of leadership in the ministry. But do you know that God only uses people who have first served?

If you do a close study of the heroes of the Bible, you will discover that almost all of them once held a position of service. Starting from the father of Faith – Abraham, who served his father Taran and was on his way with to the land of Canaan before his father died in the land of the Chaldeans.

Isaac served his father, Abraham, so much so that he trusted his father, even to the point of a near-death experience. Jacob served his Uncle Laban for twenty years before God liberated and made him a wealthy man. Joseph was obedient to his father Jacob and never hesitated to go on the errands he was sent by his father. One of those errands led to him being sold into slavery by his brothers to an Egyptian captain – called Potiphar. Joseph served faithfully in the house of Potiphar, and his faithfulness resulted in him being jailed because he did not give in to the temptation of Potiphar’s wife. While in prison, he remained faithful. This time, his faithfulness led him to the palace, and he became the ruler of Egypt; second in command to Pharaoh.

Moses served Jethro as a shepherd for 40 years, Joshua served Moses for 40 years as his assistant and stayed obedient to the commands of Moses even after his death. Samuel served Eli, David served his father Jesse even after Samuel anointed him to be King. He also served Saul and remained faithful to him, even when Saul wanted to kill him. Elisha served Elijah. When Jehoshaphat – the King of Judah, heard that Elisha poured water on the hands of Elijah, he was convinced that God’s word was with Him. The list goes on. 

These examples show that if we want to be used by God, we need to start with a heart of service. It is so sad that this generation is not looking to serve but are looking to be served. We have somehow believed in the ideology that greatness equates with being the boss. But this is not what Jesus teaches us. He said that the one who wants to be the greatest must be the least, and it is for the same reason He washed His disciples’ feet. If we study the life of Jesus, you will see that His primary objective was to serve God. Everything else He did was only a by-product of His service towards God.  Paul tells us that He did not consider equality with God as a bragging point, but He humbled Himself, even to the obedience of death. This is the mind that God wants us to have for Him to truly use us as tools in His hands.

Therefore, the first step to being used by God is to be a servant.