The Type of Person God Uses
There are 3 attributes of a person whom God uses for the glory of the Kingdom :
1) Desire to do His will. We live in a flesh-driven world where we are limited by our culture pressures, our own self-gratifying nature and our inability to perceive the beginning from the end. Peter felt worthless and ask the Lord to leave him. Mary feared when the angle appeared and more so fearing about what people would perceive of her if she was found to be pregnant. Jesus asked for the "cup" to be take away from him. We all have fears have Ps Tan would put it : fear of criticism, fear of the supernatural, fear of inadequecy and fear of change. I would add one more : fear of rejection. It is tough to do God's will, I can ascertain to that. The last time I cried "Thy will be done" was in an emotionally wretching circumstance.
We are familiar to with Peter's response to Jesus when he was asked to leave his vocation and become fishers of man. Mary's response was "Let be it done unto me according to your Word" (Luke 1:38). And we are very familiar with Jesus response at Gethsamane : Not mine but Thy will be done. They have gone to be people used mightily by God to accomplish His purposes.
2) Willing to pay to price. To be used mightily by God, we must be willing to pay the price. Expounding on Mary's case, she risked her reputation, risked losing her fiance and had to be uncomfortable during her pregnancy by travelling to Bethlehem and giving birth to Jesus in a manger so that the prophecy would be fulfilled. There was a certain guy who wanted to get something for his wife to celebrate their anniversary, but didn't want to fork out too much dollars for it. He decided to buy her a bottle of perfume. The salesperson brought out a bottle of perfume from the glass showcase and quoted 50 dollars. "It's too expensive," he said. The salesperson brought out a smaller bottle each time he was not satisfied with the price until the salesperson had to bring out a really small sample bottle which cost 10 dollars. "You don't get it, I want something really really cheap. Show it to me the cheapest you've got!" he boomed. Finally the salesperson brought out a mirror. Moral of the story : don't be a cheap-skate.
3) Dare to trust His promises. In September 1859 was a historic moment at Niagara falls. Blondin was the first man to walk across the tight-rope from one bank to another, to and fro. Not only that, he did many other stunts like walking across blind-folded, cycled on a bicyle, fried an omelette in the middle etc. With each of these illustrous version of stunts the crowd was estatic and cheered on and believed that he could accomplish each and everyone of them. Finally he asked who would volunteer to be carried by him to walk on tight-rope across the Niagara. The crowd fell silent. After a while, a young man came stepped forward. A lot of us are like the crowd. We believed in Jesus, we cheer upon him and we praise him. But how many of us are willing to step out in faith to claim the promises of God?
Jesus, though Son of God, has became man and he understands all our struggles and infirmities, yet without sin. That is why, until Kingdom comes, Jesus promises us the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:13-14).
*Adaptation from Ps. Tan Ye Peng of City Harvest Church, Singapore on 10-Dec 2006*
posted by Mel-Vern @ 9:39 PM
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