What if God Doesn't Use You?

Let me say right at the start of this post that these thoughts are not original with me. Mike Donehey from the band "Tenth Avenue North" wrote a post about a year ago entitled "God Don't Use Me" that struck me then and has recently come back to memory. Here is a link to his blog (which by the way is awesome!) - http://mikedonehey.tumblr.com

When I read that post a year ago, I began to chew on it and to this day I am still processing it. Allow me to share some of my thoughts with you here.

I want you to think about s prayer that we pray often; we say something along the lines of "God, please use me." It's a great prayer and I think every Christian should desire to be used of God. We should fervently seek to have God use us in a way that advances the Gospel and His Kingdom on earth. But I think that we also need to learn to be okay when He doesn't use us.

Let me explain: say you have an unsaved family member and you want more than anything that Jesus would save them. Wouldn't you be okay if God used someone other than you to lead them to Him? Of course you would because the most important thing to you is that they know Jesus, not that you be used to lead them to Him. Of course, you would be thrilled if you are the one to lead them, but the ultimate goal is that they be saved.

So why is it that so often we pray to be "used of God" more than we pray that Jesus be exalted and the lost be found? Let me challenge us to come to church services, mission trips, youth groups, everyday life, etc. with the desire to see Jesus lifted high and God's will be done; no matter who He uses to accomplish that.

We all play a part in seeing God's mission accomplished, but there will be times when God uses someone else instead of you for a specific task. You need to be okay with that. This hits home to me as a youth pastor because I want to be a part of showing all the teens at South Shore what it means to be a disciple of Jesus. But I have to be okay with and even excited about the fact that God will at times use other people to impact those same teens instead of me. And I should rejoice when that happens because the ultimate goal is to see them follow Jesus, not that I be the one who led them to do that.

After all, it is God who does all the work right? We all are here to play the role that He calls us to. That means we must let God use those around us as well instead of trying to be the "top Christian" at our church. So what will you do if God doesn't use you? Will you submit to that? Or do you want the spotlight? Let us "humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God so that at the right time, He may exalt us." (1 Peter 5:6)

The Other Half of the Lust Problem

Ephesians 5:3 (NIV) - "But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God's holy people."

Most people read the above verse and think "men really need to stop lusting and viewing pornography." There's a problem with that statement; men aren't the only ones. I don't know the exact statistics, but I do know that more and more women are engaging in the viewing of pornography; and so many people are ignoring this.

Why is it that when I look at my Instagram or Facebook feed I see hundreds of 'man crush monday's' that nobody has a problem with. Women (teens and adults alike) are posting pictures of half-naked men as their 'man-crush' without even a slight pushback from their brothers and sisters in Christ.

Let me be clear: I am NOT for a second ignoring the fact that men have a massive problem with lust and do the same things and more than women do. What I AM saying is that the Church must stop ignoring the fact that millions of women are drowning in a sea of lust without anyone trying to help them through it.

Everyone seems to be calling for modesty in women and for men to find help with their porn addiction. But nobody is calling out to the women of the church to "flee sexual immorality" (1 Corinthians 6:18). This is a serious problem because women have become numb to this sin and it is destroying their relationship with Jesus. The hardest part is, they don't seem to notice.

It's like they don't even see their posts as lustful or their thoughts as adulterous at all. I know that this is not just a man's thoughts on the issue because I have had a few women express their concern on this as well. Our "Christian culture" has accepted the lie that men lust and women don't. Oh we say that we know women struggle with lust, but we don't battle the issue or provide any correction or accountability for them. I know that women don't struggle with the same 'expressions' of lust as men do, but lust is lust and it's sin that Jesus died to free us from!

Women fantasize what their lives would be like if they were in a relationship with certain celebrities, have conversations with their friends about how 'hot' certain guys are, and some even are engaged in full-on pornography. How are we okay with this? If Ephesians 5:3 says that there shouldn't even be a 'hint' of sexual immorality (depending on the translation), then we have to do something about this.

If we only address men for their lust, we are missing half of the problem. Let us be more aware of this and being to "Abstain from the passions of the flesh" (2 Peter 2:11). I think our churches and the body of Christ are struggling more than we realize because of this overlooked sin in our congregations.

Philippians 4:8 - "Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things."

For more on this subject, check out this article - http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/tgc/2014/01/08/when-women-lust/

Always a Student, Never a Warrior

The other day, I went on a spiritual retreat with some of the pastors and staff at South Shore. It was a time that we could just spend a few hours by ourselves in prayer to the Lord. To say I needed that time would be the understatement of the year. My prayer life had been really dry and almost non-existent. I spent hours on a dock with nothing but my Bible and Journal. It was truly Me and God for a while. I could spend a whole other post talking about how refreshing that alone was.

For now however, I want to tell you about what God revealed to me that day. As the title of this post proclaims, I realized that I am always a student of the Word, but never a Warrior in the battle. I realized that my 'quiet times' with the Lord were too quiet. What I mean by that is that I always spend my time with the Lord reading His word, but never praying. Never would I sit with Him for hours or even half an hour praying.

My life and ministry was full of knowledge about God; seeking to be a student of the Word and to 'know Him' (Philippians 3:10), but never stepping into the mission  battle that He has called us to fight. We have been called to know Him yes, but we have also been called to make Him known! How in the world do I think that I can come against the "spiritual forces of evil" (Ephesians 6:12) if I never assume the battle position; on my knees?

Let me be clear, I believe that being a student of the Word is of utmost importance. 2 Timothy 2:15 I believe is very clear that we must be able to "rightly handle the Word." Besides, we have such a great privilege to know God through His Word. But just as I believe there is no substitute for the Word, there is no substitute for "fervent prayer" (James 5:17). It's interesting that James doesn't say the fervent study of a righteous man has great power; he says it's prayer that does.

You can't always study but never pray. Neither can you always pray but never study. It's not either/or, it's both/and. If you're always a student, you're powerless to put your study into action, if you're always a warrior, you're clueless as to how to fight and Who you're fighting for.

I have a feeling that there are others like me out there. For me it's just easier to always study the Word. Prayer is hard work for me, I get way too distracted. I also like to approach God intellectually; I want to be able to know Him in a very deep, personal way and I feel as though His Word gives me the best chance at that. But there are ways that I can know Him through prayer that I could never know Him through His Word.

So my challenge to myself is to continue in the Word, but to stir myself up to fervent prayer. I want the whole armor of God and I don't want to always be a student, but never a warrior. It takes work, and I know I'll be fighting this until Jesus calls me home. But if I have been called to a God-sized mission, I am going to need God-sized power. Don't let your time in the Word take from your time on your knees and vice-versa. Become a student who is also a warrior!