Usefulness

                   The crude arrow displayed in the photo was given to me by an Indian man when I was on a preaching mission in Mexico’s interior.  It is hand made with a flint head tied to the shaft with leather strips.  The feathers are carefully tied at the notched end and the shaft has clearly been shaped by a sharp knife.   Contemporary archers, with their precision made equipment, would find little usefulness in such an arrow.  However, for millennia, hunters and warriors have used such instruments effectively. 

Perhaps there is a lesson in this arrow for you and me.  Time and again I’m told by genuine Believers that they don’t know enough, or they’re not versed enough in Scripture, to witness.  They seem afraid their inexperience, or lack of knowledge, will harm an unbeliever and keep that one from coming to Christ.  However, God uses those of us who are inexperienced, who still have rough edges, and who have not yet become precision instruments.  He seems to delight in using the weak and those deemed foolish by this world to work His wonders and His infinite Grace. 

In 1 Corinthians 1:26ff, we’re told, “For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty;  and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are,  that no flesh should glory in His presence.  But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God—and righteousness and sanctification and redemption—  that, as it is written, “He who glories, let him glory in the Lord.”

Certainly we should study, and learn, but we must not wait until we know every thing, or until we have been polished, and machined to near perfection to become useful in God’s service.  You and I are useful, if we love Him, and are willing to be used by Him.  Let your usefulness in His Kingdom’s work be utilized today. 


©                Mike Rasberry              2015