(Fifth part)
Memory verse: (John 15:16) " You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you "
C) Usefulness. God makes a surrendered life useful, productive, effective and fruitful. Without God we can do nothing of lasting value. When you surrender your life to God, he begins to fill you with his Spirit, gifts of the Holy Spirit, wisdom, and all heavenly resources that make you exceedingly useful. Useful means full of uses, you can be used to do a lot of things.
Paul said " I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me". Usefulness also means being profitable. Only God could turn Saul who was destroying Christianity to make him a mighty Apostle of the faith he once destroyed. God turned the life of Samuel very fruitful for God’s kingdom but his three brothers and two sisters had no impact to their generation because they were not surrendered to God. Only what you surrender to God is what He can use. So many people live a very useless life full of regrets and frustration just because they cannot surrender it to God. Satan deceives many that once they give their lives to God, He will not allow them to enjoy their lives. Some people think there’s a joyful life outside God and this is a lie. David discovered that there are pleasures evermore in the presence of God (Ps16:11) True pleasures are found in God’s presence. Righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit are what the kingdom of God is all about. So many people have tried to live their lives according their choices and later after many years of worthless toil they look back only to find that they labored in vain. There’s no much you can do with your life, accepts God and he’ll make your life fruitful. The scripture said that God chose you to produce fruit that will last.
So many people toil to build up things that can’t last even for a generation. Isn’t painful to think of billions of people who walked upon this earth and they did a lot of things that can’t fit in any books, but none of their labors is remembered. They did a lot, achieved a lot of success, but they are all forgotten. But the works of men who gave their lives to God, like Daniel, Paul, Moses, John the Baptist etc, what they did will be remembered forever.
Tomorrow we will see ‘Preparation’
