"In a large house there are articles not only of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay; some are for noble purposes and some for ignoble. If a man cleanses himself from the latter, he will be an instrument for noble purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work." - 2 Timothy 2:20
This verse makes me feel so selfish and short-sighted about my role in God's kingdom. I think most of my time is spent thinking about how I want God to bless my life, how He can make me happy, and what He can do for me. Even my worship of Him and the service that I do in His name, in many ways I think that if I do these things, He will make me happier or I will be more fulfilled in some way. Then I feel so silly when I read something like this. God doesn't exist to glorify us and our tiny little lives. We exist to glorify Him! I sit around and ask God to do things for me, and I become impatient with Him when things don't go my way. Who am I to ask God for things to go my way? Especially when my life is about everything
but Him and He only exists for my selfish purposes. Because that's not the way things work, is it. No,
I only exist for
His purposes and to further
His kingdom. So God's not saying, cleanse yourself of ignoble things, and then I'll make you happier and bless your life more. He's saying, cleanse yourself of ignoble things, and then I'll
use you for the furthering of My kingdom, make yourself ready for Me, and I'll give you work to do for
Me. Of course if my heart is in the right place, I will love being used for His purposes more than I would love any other blessings He could give me, but it will take some major reconfiguring of my heart to come to truly understand that concept. I just need that constant reminder from God that we're not in this for me. And that even though we're in it for God, the great part about it is that this is what I was made for, this is my purpose, to glorify God with everything I do, so naturally I will end up happier glorifying God than I'd ever be if I were doing anything else.