Beloved: grace, mercy and peace be yours forevermore from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord. I am glad to welcome you to another week of this year, which is the first week of the month of August 2022. I pray that God, who has been taking care of us, will continue to keep us safe in these dangerous times and also continue to make us increase in usefulness, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
As we see in the bible, at various times in life God plants us in different people’s lives to be helpers or comforters to them. This, of course, is never to make slaves of us, even though we may sometimes find ourselves doing things that slaves do. Rather, it is often to prepare us for greater heights God wants to take us or for greater assignments He wants to give to us.
For instance, before Joseph became second-in-command to Pharaoh, he had served as a servant and helper to Potiphar and also to the warden of the prison he was taken to after the blackmail of Potiphar’s wife. And the experiences and training he had while serving these people must have helped him greatly while leading the nation of Egypt. Also, before Elisha became the leading prophet of the nation of Israel, he had first served and helped Elijah in many ways. And the time he spent with that man of God must have greatly helped him in cultivating the right culture in handling the word of God even in difficult situations. (Cf. Gen 39-41; 1Kings 19 – 2Kings 2)
But then, we must understand that the reason both Joseph and Elisha eventually got to the great heights God wanted them to get to and also succeeded there was that they made themselves quite useful to those that they were meant to serve at the time they were meant to serve them. If Joseph, for instance, had been useless to Potiphar, he would not have put all his possessions in his care. Or if he had been useless to the warden of the prison he was taken to, he would most likely not have had the opportunity to meet the man that secured his release.
So, wherever you are, identify the people God wants you to serve, help or comfort and prove yourself highly useful or invaluable to them instead of becoming an unnecessary burden. Don’t be like Job’s three friends who came to comfort him in his time of trial but ended up hurting him more. Look at his words concerning them: “You, however, smear me with lies; you are worthless physicians, all of you! If only you would be altogether silent! For you, that would be wisdom.” (Job 13:4-5NIV)
Then don’t be like John Mark who, in his early days as a minister, abandoned Paul and Barnabas during their first missionary trip. According to Luke, this man had followed these apostles to help them in whatever way they might need him. That means he may have been required to help them with their house chores, travel arrangements, letter writing or delivery, tax payments and so forth. But for no good reason, he left them when the work was just starting. So, he was a useless minister to them at that time, even though he was Barnabas’s cousin. No wonder Paul did not want them to take him when they were going on their second missionary trip. (Cf. Acts 13:5&13; Acts 15:36-41)
Now all thanks to God that Mark later woke up and began to make himself responsible in serving the leaders He wanted him to serve. So, Paul would later ask Timothy to bring him to him because he had become useful to him in his ministry (2Tim 4:11). And that is how God wants all of us to be. He wants us to grow up to be tremendously useful to the people in our lives, especially our leaders, whether at home, in the church or at work.
See, leaders, including our parents, don’t want liabilities around them but helpers. They already have enough work to do and don’t want followers that will make things harder but easier for them. So, if you can’t make things easier for your leaders, wherever you may be, you are useless to them. And as long as you are like that, your leaders won’t see any reason to lift you up. Even God can’t open greater doors of usefulness for you, if you are useless to those He wants you to serve or help. So, wake up, as Mark eventually did and start making yourself useful to all the people He wants you to serve. And before you know it, doors of opportunity for greater heights will start opening here and there for you.
Have a fabulous week.
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