Usable.....
I read a prayer this am ...”Lord, grant me the strength to say no to the things I must and yes to the things I should, that You may find me usable in Your hand, a vessel fit for the Master’s use”
It happen to coincide with a class for membership class I am currently taking...
Having been a church member of one body or another for as long as I can remember, this has been a wonderful review of church doctrine...basic beliefs of Christianity that this local body adheres to...oh, yes I had submitted my letter of transfer, but we still go through the class, which has been great...
But, I want to be usable...and to really participate fully in this local body, I need to be a member just as I had been one previously in another geographical area...
Oh, I can be usable in the universal body of Christ...but, there is something about the intimacy of the “localness”...to write one’s name down as part of a local body...to be known, cared for locally...admitting your local loyalty and be connected with local familiar people...to be more usable locally...to share history with this group as I have previously with others...
I have been missing that belonging...the closeness that membership affords...moving around since my husband’s passing...even though I was attending, even teaching/facilitating small group studies, participating in functions of local churches where I have lived since his passing...
We were always involved in leadership, staff, teaching as a couple and individually...at the heart of a body...but, when he passed, things changed, I changed, circumstances changed...suddenly I was a widow, I moved away from the local area where we served for so long...thrust into a new role...still usable, but differently...a new path from my perspective, but, not a surprise to God...
I want that usefulness, that openness to be usable in my new locale, usability in the body...a vessel clean, ready for whatever filling He has planned, maybe a new role, or a continuation of the past...hence the membership class...
Thank YOU for a place to belong...to be usable...to be used for Your glory in the body You have placed me...
Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.
Colossians 2:6-7
....he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work.
2 Timothy 2:21b
So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ.
From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.
Ephesians 4:11-13,15-16
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