Every Christian wants to be used by God. This is a good thing, though sometimes distorted in our approach. If not careful, the desire to be used by God stems forth from our need to redeem ourselves, or to be recognized as a great Christian leader, or to be about busy work.

Scripture is riddled with “small” players, the single scene bit shots, shooting stars in God’s Grand Scheme of self-revelation, man’s hopelessness, and the redemptive plan of salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. You can see this in Eldad and Medad, two men called by name and mentioned but twice throughout the entirety of scripture, and both mentions at the same moment in time:

“And Moses went out, and told the people the words of the LORD, and gathered the seventy men of the elders of the people, and set them round about the tabernacle. And the LORD came down in a cloud, and spake unto him, and took of the spirit that was upon him, and gave it unto the seventy elders: and it came to pass, that, when the spirit rested upon them, they prophesied, and did not cease. But there remained two of the men in the camp, the name of the one was Eldad, and the name of the other Medad: and the spirit rested upon them; and they were of them that were written, but went not out unto the tabernacle: and they prophesied in the camp. And there ran a young man, and told Moses, and said, Eldad and Medad do prophesy in the camp. And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of Moses, one of his young men, answered and said, My lord Moses, forbid them. And Moses said unto him, Enviest thou for my sake? would God that all the LORD’S people were prophets, and that the LORD would put his spirit upon them!” (Numbers 11:24-29).

Do you think it strange that God so often limits the fame his true servants? Perhaps not: for humble men do not seek reputation. They know the dangers. They understand that if not careful, we will pride ourselves upon our position. We decide that we are what we are through our own works and focus. So we begin to talk about what we did to get where we are, and we give unto God a watered down glory. Yet the Father clearly warns us about tooting our own horn.

See below, another shooting star, a man without a name, a humble man known to us only as Jonathan’s armorbearer:

“Now it came to pass upon a day, that Jonathan the son of Saul said unto the young man that bare his armour, Come, and let us go over to the Philistines’ garrison, that is on the other side. But he told not his father. And Saul tarried in the uttermost part of Gibeah under a pomegranate tree which is in Migron: and the people that were with him were about six hundred men; And Ahiah, the son of Ahitub, I-chabod’s brother, the son of Phinehas, the son of Eli, the LORD’S priest in Shiloh, wearing an ephod. And the people knew not that Jonathan was gone. And between the passages, by which Jonathan sought to go over unto the Philistines’ garrison, there was a sharp rock on the one side and a sharp rock on the other side: and the name of the one was Bozez, and the name of the other Seneh. The forefront of the one was situate northward over against Michmash, and the other southward over against Gibeah. And Jonathan said to the young man that bare his armour, Come, and let us go over unto the garrison of these uncircumcised: it may be that the LORD will work for us: for there is no restraint to the LORD to save by many or by few. And his armourbearer said unto him, Do all that is in thine heart: turn thee; behold, I am with thee according to thy heart. Then said Jonathan, Behold, we will pass over unto these men, and we will discover ourselves unto them. If they say thus unto us, Tarry until we come to you; then we will stand still in our place, and will not go up unto them. But if they say thus, Come up unto us; then we will go up: for the LORD hath delivered them into our hand: and this shall be a sign unto us. And both of them discovered themselves unto the garrison of the Philistines: and the Philistines said, Behold, the Hebrews come forth out of the holes where they had hid themselves. And the men of the garrison answered Jonathan and his armourbearer, and said, Come up to us, and we will shew you a thing. And Jonathan said unto his armourbearer, Come up after me: for the LORD hath delivered them into the hand of Israel. And Jonathan climbed up upon his hands and upon his feet, and his armourbearer after him: and they fell before Jonathan; and his armourbearer slew after him. And that first slaughter, which Jonathan and his armourbearer made, was about twenty men, within as it were an half acre of land, which a yoke of oxen might plow,” (1 Samuel 14:1-14).

Which of us, if we were this unnamed man, would not seek to rewrite the words so that others would know that it is us of whom the scripture speaks, that it is our mighty works for God that you have witnessed, that we are the shinning stars? In a secular world, promotion comes through works. In the Kingdom of heaven, promotion comes when God decrees it to be so. We are his workmanship, crafted for the plans and position that he has already ordained. What? Did you call yourself out of sin? Will you establish your own credentials and position? Oh foolish men that we are. Can we not see? Do we not grasp that the power within us is locked inside of an earthern vessel? A brittle and failed vessel? A thing of hopelessness without that God’s glory shine from within?

What could we say of the many other flashes of light that have crossed the sky of God’s scripture? Would we speak of Abigail, the wife of an evil man named Nabal, a woman who humbly stayed the hand of King David’s wrath, a woman mentioned only once for her own actions and then thereafter addressed only as one of the many wives of King David, or only as the mother of some of his children.

Maybe we could read about Jonathan the son of Shimea, David’s brother. Just as David, a man who shines throughout the bible, killed a giant, so too did Jonathan; yet Jonathan appears in the scriptures but twice, and both mentions being in the same content of his single revealed work for God. Was he not important to God? Perhaps he did seek be better known. Perhaps he asked God to lift him to a higher and loftier position. Or perhaps he simply lived for the King of Creation as a man who cares not for his own glory.

But we are not done yet for the shooting stars are many. Think upon a little maid, unnamed, who served in the home of Naaman the leper, captain of the host of the king of Syria. By speaking to her mistress, this Israelite maid became instrumental in bring a man to seek healing. And what of Naaman’s servants, the ones that convinced him to go into the water? Specks on the pages of scripture are these people, and so many more just like them. The list can go on and on, with some being mentioned twice, or even three times, while most are mentioned only once.

We must always strive for the mark. But if we are motivated for position, jockeying to be great, or seeking our own kingdom; know that in man’s path there is always a path to the top. You can tell God what you want, and you can tell him how you want to be used, and in so doing you will learn to be proud of your works. You can be as the disciples, seeking who will be greatest even as the greatest of all submits to what seemed at the time to be an absolute failure of his purposes.

Or,

You can ask God what he wants out of you, and you can remember that the last shall be first, and you can become an unknown servant without personal ambitions. You can become as a little child, trusting, believing, and depending upon Jesus rather than yourself.

When we become servants, the struggle ends. Moses never set about to make himself well known. Neither did David, or Jeremiah, or Paul. Rather, they simply did what God had set before them. Moses was a man awakened from self-imposed exile. David was a shepherd boy. Jeremiah was a teenager. All were sometimes reluctant to keep going.

Do you want to be used by God? Lay down your own efforts, your own works, and your own ambitions. Set aside the struggle to met some supposed state of perfection, admit yourself weak, and then do this:

“At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in thy sight. All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him. Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light,” (Matthew 11:25-30).

For more Christian content consider:

Secular Solutions or Power from God
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2868404/secular_solutions_or_power_from_god.html?cat=34

Bible confidence, building faith one wrong door at a time.
http://jobshopesolutions.com/index.php?page=article&article_id=21465

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