“Handy tool…….”

“For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.”  John 6:38  NKJV

I do not want to serve God as a handy tool, but as a willing servant.

God has used many people in His service, some of them because they were “handy tools” and others because they were servants in heart.

God called Nebuchadnezzar “My servant” but that was only because he was a “rod of anger” whom God used to punish His idolatry-filled nation. (Jer. 25:9)  Nebuchadnezzar’s servant-ship to God was a dubious distinction; he was simply a handy tool whom God needed, not a dedicated servant eager to serve God.

The “handy tool” concept of service is the lowest on the scale.   God takes no pride in the man who is merely available, who is simply there.  He uses him for a special purpose in spite of the callousness of his heart or the wickedness of his life.

“How can God use such a man?” we ask in perplexity.  Well, He does, but He does so without respect for the man; He does so because He is sovereign and has the right to use any instrument He chooses.

Simply to be used by God means nothing unless my service is the kind of which God can be proud.  Noah was used by God because he had “grace,” that is, God found spiritual qualities in him that pleased Him.  Jesus was such a delightful Servant that God introduced Him to the whole world as “My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased.”   (Matt. 3:17)

I must never hold up what God has done through me as a sign of my devotion to Him.  God has used some very despicable people indeed!  But I must pursue after Him until He uses me, not as a handy tool, but for the sake of His own Son whose image He finds exposed in me.

My desire is that God will make me “worthy of his calling” and “fulfill every good purpose” in me to the glory of Jesus Christ.  (II Thess. 1:11-12 NIV)