Me? Upside-Down?

       I entered into my new Christian walk with much enthusiasm. I became active in many areas of the church. I was now graduated from college, married, and starting a new home. My spiritual life was exciting, however, I never actually asked God what I should do in service to Him. I just went about doing what I wanted to do, but as we shall see, not for the right reasons.

      
       Actually, I ran ahead of God. First, I thought I should make banners for the church, since I recently graduated from a prestigious Art college. Then, I thought that the choir needs an alto, and I could help them out there. Next, I helped lead the Senior High Youth Group, because I thought I could identify with the ages of these kids. Also, I babysat in the nursery during some services, because I thought I would sacrifice my time for others. Are you getting the picture? The most prevalent word mentioned above is the word, “I”. Had I asked God what He wanted to use me for? No. I was certainly running on my power, not His. I had the pot upside-down.

    
      You turn things upside down as if the potter were thought to be like the clay. Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, “He knows nothing?” Should the pot say of the Potter, “He knows nothing?”

      In essence that is exactly what I was doing. I brought some of my insecurities into my walk with Him, having never dealt with them, and now I was trying to earn approval from my friends at church, even from God.

      There is a very big difference, and what seems like a small thin line in our minds, to doing work for God, or from letting God do His work through us. This is where I had been upside down. Am I going to tell God, “This is what I am going to do for you” or am I going to let Him use me for the purpose He placed in my life? Certainly, most of us want the second, but how many of us trudge into our way of serving God?

      It took me ten years of my life to learn this lesson. Ten years of living and failure before I realized this truth.