God Wants to Use You

Devotional

Ephesians 2:8-10 says:

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

God’s grace is meant to be our catalyst to living passionate lives that bear fruit of eternal value. You aren’t meant to go through the motions. You weren’t created to live a normal life whose impact only lasts for this life. God in his grace and love has called you to more. You were made for a life of deep and lasting impact. You were made to share God’s heart with the world.

It can be difficult to understand God’s heart in wanting to use us. For some, we write ourselves off as too sinful, weak, selfish, or inept to be used by God. For others, we view God as a taskmaster who wants to use us solely for his motives. Still others of us believe that serving God is less fun, less fulfilling, and far stranger than anything we’d like to do. We’re fine with a God who would give us a “get out of hell free card,” but that’s about as far as we’d like him to go in relationship with him.

The truth is that your life will never be fulfilling until you allow God to use you. Ephesians 2:10 is clear that you were “created in Christ Jesus for good works.” You won’t find fulfillment in anything besides the work of God because it’s not what you were made for. Material possessions apart from the provision of God become more like weights tying us down to the cares and ways of the world than sources of satisfaction. Spending your life working to become successful, appreciated, and loved in the world’s eyes is more like a treadmill than a path to abundant life. If you want to live an abundant life you have to allow God to use you.

God longs to use you because he loves you. He’s not selfish. He doesn’t need your help. He wants to work with you. He wants your life to matter. He wants you to have eternal reward for the things you do here on earth because he’s a good Father who longs to give good gifts to his children. He wants you to stop segregating your life into “God time” and “me time” and start living in continual communion with him. He wants your time at work, with friends, at church, driving, resting, relaxing, and having fun to be filled with the fullness of life that comes from doing life with him.

Take time in guided prayer to discover God’s heart to use you. May your time in prayer be filled with a revelation of God’s goodness, grace, and loving desire to co-labor with you.