Have you ever prayed for God to use you?
Maybe you shouldn’t.
Maybe there’s something you need to be asking yourself first. As Samuel Brengle put it,
“Instead of praying so much to be used, people should search themselves to know whether they are usable” (Helps to Holiness, p.69).
Are you usable?
The author of Hebrews complained that his readers were not usable:
For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food (Heb 5:12).
They should have been teachers, but they still needed to be taught. They should have been able to serve but were not ready. And it was their responsibility to be ready.
I once heard a preacher tell of asking a woman in his congregation to teach Sunday school for children. She was in her sixties and had been going to that church for nearly forty years.
She refused.
She insisted she couldn’t teach the class. “Pastor, I couldn’t do it. I need to be fed. I have so much more to learn.”
The pastor persisted. He assured her that she was quite capable of teaching a children’s Sunday school class. But she refused again. “No, I couldn’t. I need to be fed.”
At that point, the pastor grew angry and said firmly, “If you can’t teach a children’s class, then find another church to attend next Sunday.”
“But I’ve been coming here for forty years!”
“And if you haven’t grown enough here in forty years to teach a Sunday school class, you better find a church where you will.”
How many opportunities for service have you missed because you were not usable? Are you willing to change?
Jo Ann
Maybe that pastor needed to learn a few things too.
Leo Z
I wholeheartedly agree with your assessment Jo Ann. What the pastor does not realize that for 40 years under his shepherding, the woman did not grow. That’s a long time. Maybe he’s right, a different church and a different pastor may spur and encourage this woman to spiritual growth. If she’s stubborn and unwilling, throwing her out is the solution?
Andy D
I understand exactly where you are coming from in this scenario. BUT I would ask though, how much of God’s Word were they receiving to begin with?
Leo Z
Pastor Shawn, yes the writer of Hebrews is frustrated about some of his readers’ stagnancy in their spiritual maturity hence the admonishment. A situation which is all too real now as it was then.
Not all believers have been endowed the same spiritual gifts but have the same calling to service and good works. The obedience and response to the call and command however, is of varying degrees.
I’m convicted that the question Is not about being “usable”, (everyone is usable to some degree or another), rather it is about one’s willingness and openness to be used.
Praying for you and GES.
alvin
That lady had the gifts of helps, she cleaned the toilets and took out the trash every week. And when anyone needed help in the kitchen she was always willing. God bless her soul~!
Ken Tamashiro
Hi Pastor Shawn,
I was thinking about that lady’s situation because I was asked to teach a Free Grace Gospel class but I knew the crowd was not ready for Free Grace, because I have met so many oppositions in the past, ….so I declined, and the Pastor was upset also.
I think I could do it now because of changes in my maturity.
It was interesting also when God asked Moses to free the Hebrew Slaves and Moses backed away and God was angry also but God made a way for Moses to accomplish the Mission.
I think our Humanity is sometimes has a fragile ego, but if encouraged enough we might take the opportunity to try it out for God. I think Gideon was also another person who hid from Gods Will and became a very usable individual.
Grace and Peace,
Ken Tamashiro
Austin Decker
Very helpful blog. Practical ones like this are nice every now and then. Perhaps even more often.
tim welch
anyone can be a servant. A child can do this. I think this is a gross exaggeration. THe pastor should have done it himself or asked what this ladies problem is. Most teachers have prepackaged materials to teach from. Just read the material and ask questions.. the kids will love it. This is just laziness or this old lady is off her medication.