Filled For A Purpose
It’s certainly not very strong or beautiful; it is just an ordinary wicker basket I have in my overcrowded very messy office. Most of the time it is not even in use and simply sits in a corner, but for the last 30 years it has been a part of spreading the message of the gospel to thousands. Its own significance has remained unknown, until now, to all but me. It has merely been available and faithful to its calling.
For years the gospel has been shared with others through Bible lessons and faith based storybooks through the ministry of Child Evangelism. Today as my own retirement day approaches from being a part of this ministry, I happened to glance over my shoulder and saw this simple, reliable friend which literally has carried hundreds of thousands of Bible lessons from a dark space in my basement into the light and off to the world as scattered seeds of Truth sown in faith.
My humble basket reminds and encourages me of how Christ can use us. Most of us are not known for our power or beauty. Somedays we may feel like we sit in a corner hardly of use to anyone but never should we doubt the Lord will have ways to use us in bringing his beautiful message of Truth into the light.
God’s children are vessels who carry His message to the world. Our abilities do not determine our usefulness but rather our availability and what we hold inside of us. For we carry Christ. If we are to be used we must first go to the supply that fills us, Christ himself, for we cannot deliver what we do not possess. We must be filled with Christ and his word. Then we simply carry what has been entrusted to us to carry, the precious seed of the Gospel.
Over the years, each time this basket returned from my basement, full of the gospel, it allowed others to work from it and use what was in it for the purpose of fulfilling the calling we all have been given. Go. Share the Gospel with every Creature.
My basket, though worn and showing signs of age now, has become something beautiful. Never did it demand to be used. Never has it taken any credit for lives it has seen changed by the gospel. It simply continues to wait for the next time it will be used and therefore remains faithful to the calling the Lord has placed on it.
As God’s children we can take to heart Ephesians 2:10 which says “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”
With Christ, no one is insignificant or unseen. In Christ, we are filled with the insurmountable treasure of His Hope and life we can share with the World. Through Christ he uses our availability and allows us the extreme privilege to watch Him do amazing things with simple things like baskets and us.