Do you desire to be used more by God?
Have you frequently thought about what God could do with you if you were only given the chance?
Do you feel you need to get God’s attention so that He sees how much potential you have? It’s like you’re waiting on the sidelines.
Wanting to be used at your full potential as a Christian is beautiful. We should all aspire to be seen as a woman who is useful to God. So what can we do to better position ourselves to be used by God?
I feel like I am not being used to my full potential as a Christian. What can I do?
How wonderful is it that this precious child of God sent in this question and wants to be used all the way up to her full potential!!! It sounds like her heart is jumping with anticipation as she wants to know what she can do to move forward. I love it! 💖
As a Christian woman, you’ve probably heard quite a few stories about how different characters were used by God. People often say they’re empty vessels ready to be used by God. The Bible talks a lot about “vessels.” So, I’m thrilled that she wants to be a useful vessel instead of one that is destined for destruction.
2 Timothy 2:21, “Therefore if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work.”
Look closely at that verse. Can you see the conditional statement? “Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable…” If we desire to be used more by God, we should examine our lives from every angle.
We must cleanse ourselves
Have we truly cleansed or separated ourselves from what is dishonorable? Or, is there a pattern of sinful behavior that is blatantly obvious in our lives? If so, what role do we continue to allow sin to play in our lives? Are we constantly mortifying (killing) sin, or do we feel that God doesn’t really take sin all that seriously?
God takes sin very seriously. It breaks my heart to see confessing Christians caught up in sin. And it’s even worse when they are confronted with their sins and refuse to repent. Pride is a horrible sin and can appear in the sneakiest ways. Just look at Proverbs 16:18, “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.”
Some ladies may not understand that pride is a sin. Regardless of the name of the sin, if we want to be a woman who is useful to God, then we need to look more closely at the relationship we allow sin to play in our lives.
How do we cleanse ourselves from anything dishonorable? 2 Timothy 2:21
We do that through sanctification. Sanctification glorifies God, and is the will of God for our lives, 1 Thessalonians 4:3. When we became Christians, we instantly became separated from everything else unto God through something called positional sanctification, or justification.
Hebrews 10:10 says, “…we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ…” At the moment of our conversion, our position in front of God became holy. We were no longer seen as unrighteous. Because of the redemptive work of His Son, once we’ve trusted Christ for our salvation, God sees us as holy and righteous.
We are justified because Christ paid the penalty of sin for us and we accepted this by faith. 1 Corinthians 1:30, “And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption,…”
The first thing we need to agree on is that sanctification applies only to Christians. Because we are the only group of people who have experienced positional sanctification or justification (salvation).
We must be saved, set apart, holy
Even though we are Christians (people chosen and set apart for God), we still sin, 1 John 1:10.
So, in order to further distance ourselves from sin, we must proactively continue to grow in the Lord, 2 Peter 3:18. And AS we do this, we will continue to be sanctified along our journey (often called progressive sanctification). Progressive sanctification differs from positional sanctification discussed above.
Hebrews 10:14, “For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.”
As we continue to do biblical things to grow, deepen, and mature in our knowledge of Christ, He gives us the ongoing gift of sanctification. You can really start to see that what we do in private to build our faith matters very much to God. He wants our hearts, minds, and souls. He wants all of us. This is why God needs to trust us and know that we will be obedient in every life situation that comes our way.
Just as you wouldn’t trust a first-year medical school student to treat a cancer diagnosis, God needs to test us and see the strength of our faith. Is our faith so deep that when the winds come, we will stay standing?
Is our house built on the Rock? Matthew 7:24, Luke 6:48.
Of course, God knows every little detail about us, but He still must test us, James 1:2-4. And we must pass the tests and learn from them. Where I’m going with this is if we’re going to pass the tests, we need to be prepared for the tests, right?
So the big question is, How well do you know God and His Word?
Do you know and trust Him well enough to pass some big life tests?
What kind of tests have you already passed in your life?
How did those tests strengthen your faith?
👉 It’s most often the case that the women who God most visibly uses are the ones who experience very difficult life circumstances. 💯💯
Becoming a woman who is useful to God takes a lot of behind-the-scenes work. Although the prospect of being used by God is exciting, it’s not just a matter of wishing, wanting, and even praying that God will use us to our full potential. It’s putting in the work (and then some) to prove ourselves, showing and demonstrating that all of us is entirely devoted to Him.
Now I can hear in your mind, you’re saying, “But God knows every single little detail about me, right, He doesn’t NEED to test me!”
Ahhh, and you are right. In a way. HE knows what’s in your heart yes, but oftentimes He will test you to show YOU….what’s in your heart!!!!! 🤯
And please don’t get me wrong. It’s not just about saying, “I’m going to read my Bible for five hours a day to show God I want Him to use me.” That’s legalism. Putting man made “rules” upon ourselves or others in hopes of gaining more (fill in the blank).
Again, since He CAN see our hearts, He knows when we’re just trying to “trick the system” and we’ll NEVER get away with it!
It’s more about cultivating a relationship with a person who is the Lord God Almighty. To build any relationship, you must invest the time, energy, and resources to make it grow. You must learn about and understand the person. We need to really come to terms with the ways we’re showing God we love Him. It should be so much that we want to know all about Him. Do you want to spend time with Him? Every day? Is your deepest desire to glorify Him and obey Him no matter the cost???
If you’re in a season of waiting to be used by God, take comfort in that it’s a really fabulous place to be. It shows that you have a heart for God, and that you want to be on fire for Him. 🔥 You want Him to use you to your full potential – woohoo! So that’s why there are lots of things to contemplate and aspire to.
But just as we wouldn’t submit a job application for a corporate CEO position if our only experience was baby-sitting, we need to think along those same lines. It’s not about being perfect or knowing everything before God will use you – it’s also about being content with how He is using you now and being willing to suffer through tough situations to get to the next level of “usability”.
The tricky thing about our culture now is the rise of Christian celebrities. It’s easy for some to see all these women on stages or as authors with beautifully styled book covers and want to be like them. And if we’re not careful, we can deceive ourselves into thinking that achieving those glamorous types of things is the only way God can use us to our full potential. The opposite is true. God’s economy is upside down when compared to what the world promotes.
So, while you are waiting for God to use you in different ways or a larger capacity, I encourage you to look around and notice all the ways you are serving God right now where you’re at. Are you the best mom, daughter, or grandmother you can be? Are you the kind of friend you wish you had? And so on.
Now, let me ask you this: When was the last time you gave God thanks for how He is currently using you?
Are you joyful and content in your current season, whatever it may be?
Being faithful in the little things of life can lead to more and larger responsibilities
Luke 16:10 says that. So, if all you can think about is a desire to be used by God in bigger and better ways, then maybe your focus is off. You desire something that God hasn’t given you, which means, worse yet, you could be discontent, jealous, envious, covetous, and prideful.
It’s the difference between wanting to be used by God because we believe we’re better than someone else and being willing to do the most menial tasks if God asks us. Does our heart desire Him, and Him alone – or do we want fame, popularity, wealth, etc.?
We need to feel so strongly about setting ourselves apart from sin that we’re willing to do whatever it takes. God sees what we do in private and what our heart wants. And, the Bible tells us to flee from sin, focus our eyes on Him, and seek first His kingdom.
Matthew 6:33, “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”
It’s important that we sort through all of this in every which way. We need to know where our blind spots are.
If you can honestly say that you are seeking His kingdom first – and all these things we talked about are in check – meaning you’re saved, experiencing sanctification through your obedience to the Bible, you’re in a state of constant prayer, you prioritize fellowship with other believers, you regularly hear the Word of God preached by faithful men of God, you confess any known sin, pray for Him to reveal any unknown sin so that you can repent of that as well, etc. – then you are “doing” everything you can do! These are all things the Bible lays out as ways to become a woman useful to God – and you’re doing them.
If you still feel that all of this isn’t enough for you and all you can think about is being used by God in bigger and better ways…then keep looking inside at the true state of your heart. Start by thinking through the hard, ugly details of your life before your salvation. Make a list if it helps. Consider what motivated you before you were saved. What sins captured your heart back then?
And if, by chance, those same sins are still showing up in your life as a Christian, drop to your knees and confess this to God. As a genuine Christian, your life, including your motivations, should look completely different now. Sure, of course, I’m not saying we’ll never struggle with especially the strong sins, but you should have a deep desire to break those strongholds and be set free. The grace of God covers us, so this is getting to the bottom of the true condition of our hearts.
If all of this is foreign to you, and your eyes are just being opened to the truth of God and His Son Jesus Christ, you can confess and repent of your sins right this very minute. When you see the light of Christ, you need to respond to His free gift of salvation. Don’t delay because you never know when your time on earth will end. God uses the sinners He sets free to accomplish His plans and purposes on earth. Once you become a Christian, you have become a woman who can be used by God!
