I was mentioning in my newsletter how I love to pray every morning and ask God how I can be used that day for His glory and an audience member asked me, how do you pray this kind of prayer? How can you be used by God?
This is such a beautifully amazing question. Love it.
How To Be a Person God Can Use For His Glory
So, nearly every morning I wake up (or sometimes through out the day if it’s a busier day) and pray my prayer, “Lord, how can I be used today? What can I do?”
Usually He will give me a task for that day.
Maybe an email will come through to invest in someone’s Christian walk, maybe He will bring something to my remembrance to do.
Sometimes He will cause a situation to happen that I know He wants me to do, but sometimes He will also convict me of something.
How to know what He wants you to do
If something happens that day that helps someone else, or helps your spiritual fruit, you can safely assume this is God. He wants to grow us and He wants our character to grow.
Maybe someone will come to you and ask for advice or something and you can be used to help them.
Maybe they will ask for prayer; they are hurting or suffering and you can take the time to minister to them, pray with them (be sure to follow through and ask them how their prayer request is doing a few days later so they know you’re genuinely praying for them) and just be there for them.
The Bible says, “Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep.” (Romans 12:15 NASB)
Being involved in others lives and praying with them, being there for them in their sorrows and IN their happy times as well, is a part of the Christian experience.
We all need that human connection. We all need encouragement at times. We all need to be lifted up. We all need to share with someone else, our joys.
Think about the last time YOU were lifted up and how you can be that for someone else today! It’s truly such a blessing to be part of that. You get to see their prayers answered! If someone comes to me for prayer, I pray for them and then I follow up asking them what happened and I get to see God work in the lives of others and it’s such an immensely huge and MASSIVE blessing to ME to see God work in situations and in the lives of His people.
I learn more about GOD, in general, through situations like that because I’m able to see His care and concern for His children in a neutral, 3rd party type of way.
When we see God work in our own lives, it’s one thing. It’s amazing and cool, right, but when you see Him work in the lives of others, you see things from a completely different vantage point than you would if it were you.
Because you’re not IN the situation, you see it from another angle and seeing God from as many angles as you can is always a good thing. Learning about Him more and more is ALWAYS a good thing and always does our hearts good. <3
So if a situation happens for His glory or that builds your character and fruit of the Spirit, you know that it’s of the Lord and your prayer was answered.
But you’ll also want to seek out what He wants you to do. Not be passive, but more pro-active in your day too. I seek out opportunities. I look for ways I can help. I’m not just sitting back, waiting for God to show me to do something but I’m looking for opportunities.
That could be in many, many ways.
Practical ways to be used / Simple ways to serve
Maybe you are at the store and you have a coupon that you cannot use, you put the coupon on top of or next to the product and you allow someone else to find it and save THEM money.
Maybe you’re at a car repair shop with your car and they are fixing it up and you hear a lady crying because she doesn’t have the $300 necessary to pay her car repairs. Her credit cards are maxed and she doesn’t know what to do. You walk over to the front desk and you secretly pay her bill for her so that the repairs are done. She’ll never know who you are and in that way, you can be used by the Lord to help someone.
Again, like mentioned above, praying with people, rejoicing with them.
Investing in your kids and your family. Maybe you spend an additional 30 minutes with your kids today and teach them about God or watch a sermon or a Christian cartoon with them or do a Christian printable with them.
Here’s some cute faith-based printables to do with your kids:
- Jesus is Lord Kids Activities Pack
- Kids Prayer Journal
- Christian Waves Coloring Sheets
- Hand Lettering Verses for Strength
Maybe there’s a widow or a single mom in your neighborhood that you could bring dinner to.
Maybe you could go to a homeless shelter and serve in the soup kitchen or bring them supplies they need (they usually need new toiletries, any clean clothes for men, women and children of all ages and food, all the time).
Maybe you could visit a person who is shut in (think: someone in the hospital, bring them balloons or flowers or maybe an elderly who just is lonely and wants someone to talk to). If you can’t visit in person, you could write them a letter or send out some cards.
Maybe you could babysit for a new mother who needs a little relief so she can sleep or watch a single mom’s kids so she can breathe, or a newly married couple’s baby so they can have a date night.
Last year during a freak snowstorm, I had some people come and snow shovel my driveway. No idea who they were; didn’t catch them until they were already gone but it was such a pleasant thing for them to do and I was SOOO appreciative of it (I pray God blesses them!). You could mow a lawn or snow shovel a driveway for a neighbor with your husband or children.
You could start an online group for people who need help in an area of your expertise.
If it’s around the holidays, you can adopt low-income and homeless families and give them presents and food. That was done for me when I first got out of the homeless shelter and seeing their massive generosity for a stranger, it literally changed my life. I wanted to be like them and instantly became a giving person, out of thankfulness! You never know how big your impact really is and how far reaching!
You could volunteer in your church office or if your kids are in school, you can volunteer at their school.
In my previous subdivision, on a holiday, they went around giving little paper bags of goodies to people. Just to brighten their day.
There’s a ton of things you can do to be used for God. If you’re just starting out, maybe take just 30 minutes of your day, each day to serve others and be looking for opportunities that God will bring along the way for you to serve.
How He directs you personally
If you want God to direct you more personally, you’ll not only want to pray, but after you pray, start reading your Bible. I usually ask Him the question and then I read my Bible. I ask Him to show me what job or task He has for me that day.
Sometimes He will show me what He wants me to do and it only takes a little while to complete. He’ll bring an email to my mind to respond to that I wasn’t going to. Something like that.
On occasions, He will have me do a longer task.
This week when I asked Him if there’s anything I can do for Him, He wanted me to change my navigation bar on my site and put Faith in there and start working on a couple posts:
- What We Believe (how the blog got established and why, our mission, my training and upbringing in the Lord, statement of faith, etc.)
- Recommended Reading List (all the materials [sermons, books, trainings] that have brought me to where I am today that were foundational MUSTS in my spiritual walk)
Also added in a couple helpful things:
- Bible Reading Plan (super important to be in the Word DAILY!)
- How to Know If You’re REALLY Saved (I went through a majority of my life thinking I was saved and wasn’t)
After that, He wanted me to start writing some blog posts about a new topic: marriage! So I put that in my navigation bar on the blog as well.
I’m also adding in some more faith-based blog posts too! The first one I wrote was about what birds taught me about God this week and then I wrote one about how to stay pure when dating as my second post.
I have many, many more posts planned and when I was writing down all the blog posts I wanted to write about, I asked Him to help me know what to talk about and the list just came to me, free-flow, and I was writing it all down so fast as it was all just coming to me so quickly and easily.
Most likely, that was God showing me what to write and then I’m just taking one blog post at a time and asking Him to show me what to say while I write and He is. I know that the posts will help others and it’s all driven and guided by God!
Be sure you read your Bible following your prayer and spend time with Him so that you can know if there’s anything He will convict you of too. Give Him that opportunity, through prayer and seeking Him to show you if there’s anything specific He wants you to do, but most importantly, you need to be QUALIFIED to be used!!!
It’s not enough that we just simply WANT to be used by Him, we must be qualified. Here are the ways to be qualified to be used by God to serve others.
How to be qualified to be used by God
1- You must be humble.
If your heart is prideful, if you are only wanting your own will, your own way, God cannot use you. At least, not at that time. We need to be open and humble, willing to be used for HIS glory. Not trying to serve for our own agenda, to make us look good to others, or for any self-serving reason.
We must have a genuine desire to be served for HIS glory. We need to be humble in HOW He uses us. Like when He asked me to write marriage posts, I was a little confused. “Uhm, Lord…I do printables on my blog…not marriage.” It seemed so “left-field” to me. To the blog. But I put it in the navigation bar and I obeyed Him and AM obeying Him because I know HE has a plan and it’s already all worked out perfectly!
I have no idea where He’s going with this, but I know that I will go with Him wherever He leads. I’m humble. I’m asking Him to guide and lead and direct my steps.
What if I were to say to Him, “No! I don’t WANT to write marriage posts. NO! I don’t want to do what you’re asking me to do.” Then, He can’t use me. And if I am prideful about it, like, “Hey, look at me, I’m serving.” then it’s not really glorifying HIM, which leads me to my second point.
2- We can’t steal His thunder
If we obey Him and we serve for Him in His name and then try to take the credit for it or His glory, He can’t use us and the serving we are doing is for nothing.
If I start a bunch of marriage posts and I go around saying, “Look at me, I’m so amazing. See how good my marriage posts are and how smart I am in writing them. Look how wise I am,” it takes the focus OFF Him and puts it ONTO US.
If we are stealing HIS glory, we can’t be used by Him. The whole point of wanting to be used is for HIS glory, not our own, so we have to put ourselves aside, be willing to take and get absolutely NO credit for what we do and just obey, knowing that someone will see Him in us and it’ll help them.
We must constantly be giving Him credit where credit is due. When people asked me why I started my blog, I tell them…because God convicted me to.
I’m giving Him the glory. He gets the praise and the adoration, as it should be! He is worthy of such praise and worship!!!
3- Being teachable
Maybe He asks you to do something that you don’t feel worthy of doing. Maybe it’s something completely out of your comfort zone and you just don’t know HOW on earth you’ll tackle it.
Be teachable!
Be willing to learn whatever it is that He wants you to do. If He calls you to work at a homeless shelter in a soup kitchen, be willing to learn HOW to serve there. We have to be willing to do what He asks, and then learn what we don’t know. He will either teach it to us, or we will be surprised that we already know how to do whatever it is that He’s asking us to do.
Same example about the marriage posts. I was confused and a little shocked He asked me to start writing them. My first reaction was, “Lord, I am not worthy. I cannot teach this thing.”
But He reminded me that the SECOND thing I learned (after saving money) after I became a Christian WAS all about marriage. I have been trained, thoroughly for years and years and years, both when I was married to my ex-husband as well as being trained with my former Pastor’s wife.
I know this stuff inside and out and while it’s a little rusty, I admit, God convicted that He would help me remember as I’m writing the posts and to guide me and to give me wisdom…and you know what?!
He IS!
It’s amazing to watch as I’m writing those marriage posts, him leading me. Showing me what to say, guiding me through the Holy Spirit and being a part of all that, just wow! It’s so amazing to feel God inside me, the Holy Spirit just pouring out and writing these things. It’s such a great feeling to be used and that I FEEL the Holy Spirit when writing!
I’m truly honored and blessed He’s using ME to do this task He wants me to do.
4- Abiding in Him
I won’t say that He can’t use us when we are not abiding in Him, but I will say that He can use us a lot better when we ARE!
If our hearts are to be glorifying to Him, if we want to serve for Him and be used for Him and His glory, we have to be abiding in Him. We have to be walking in the Spirit, maintaining an extra special CLOSE relationship with Him.
If we are not, then what pours out of us won’t be near as good as if we are. So the first thing to being used by God is being super close to Him and being used by Him will draw you nearer to Him. That’s the beauty of it. As we obey Him, as we seek HIS purposes, we become closer to Him, and then we can be used more and more and more!!!
5- Take your responsibility seriously
If you ask Him to use you, and then He wants to use you and shows you what He wants you to do and then you tell Him, “No,” it kind of defeats the whole purpose.
If you pray that He will use you, you have to be willing to do what He asks and take it seriously.
Don’t do a half job. Go in full throttle and do your absolute best. Consider Him LIKE an employer. Work unto Him as if you’re working unto an employer. This means you’ll do the job, when He asks you to do it and take it seriously.
When He asked me to do the marriage posts, I could have said, “Well, I will get around to this later.” But I didn’t. I re-worked my entire editorial calendar for the next few months and created the rest of the year. I’m writing posts as we speak and then scheduling one every couple weeks.
If I have to write 15 blog posts, then I am writing them, scheduling them, and doing this now. Not putting it off, not quitting, but seeing it through to the end.
So far, I only have 5 blog posts left to write and I started around 5 days ago. I am really taking this extremely seriously and doing exactly as He’s asked me to do. It’s a priority in my life and I guess that’s what I want to say.
When He asks you to do something, whatever it is that HE asks you to do is a priority. Make it top priority because, this is, after all, God we are talking about! He deserves the respect of doing it and doing a good job to the absolute best of your ability.
While that isn’t an exhaustive list of absolutely everything under the sun that will make you qualified, it does give you a general direction and things to make SURE you’re doing as you are praying for God to use you.
I’m so happy that you want to be used by God. I think it’s such an amazing thing to desire. It truly blesses my heart that you’re reading this now and I pray that God uses you in a special way that only He can! <3 <3 <3
