A lesson from Paint...

I've been doing a lot of painting lately. Some just to try things out, and others because people are actually paying me to paint things! Last night I was cleaning out my paint bucket and trying to get rid of empty bottles and other paint that was not usable... and I had quite the thought... and it was all because of what I was putting the paint in.

A few months ago I found this old toolbox in the barn at home. I don't know if it was Daddy's or Pawpaw's but ultimately I know they both would have used it. I cleaned it out and brought it home, knowing that I wanted to use it to store my paints. So here's where they applicable to my life as a Christian thought came in...

I am using my daddy's toolbox to store my tools, they are different tools than he used... paint brushes instead of hammers, and acrylic paint instead of wood glue... but they are the tools I use nonetheless. I use my "tools" to make things just as daddy used his, but we used/are using the same vessel to carry them.

In the bible we are told multiple times that we are God's temple:

"Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's." (1 Corinthians 6:19-20)

"Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?" (1 Corinthians 3:16)

Here's another way to think of yourself as God's temple:

{I am God's toolbox.}

Now I know that being a "tool" is not generally the most complementary of terms... but in my little analogy here... it works. You see... God equips us all with the tools we can use to serve him. For some it is leadership and preaching, for others it is service, academics, or the arts. But no matter what, God gives you the tools to accomplish whatever it is He wants you to do. He gives you the tools to reach out to others in a way no one else can. He gives you just the right hue to paint the picture, or the exact set of pliers to fix the fence. 

I've also recently been pointed to a particular verse multiple times that I believes coincides to this lesson in recognising that I am one of God's many tool...

"He must increase, but I must decrease." (John 3:30)

I have been reading through Oswald Chamber's My Utmost for His Highest and struck by the words that he used to accompany this verse:

{If you become a necessity to a soul, 

you are out of God's order.}

I struggled with that as I read it... and still do to some extent... but what I learn from it is that no matter what we do... what tools we use, the end result of our work should not be about us... it should be about Him. When we get to the end of our lives on this earth, we should work so that people do not say "What a wonderful person, she/he was," but "What a wonderful Christian she/he was." We should not want to be identified for WHAT we do... but for WHOM we do it. Anything less is unacceptable in the eyes of God because it is self seeking and selfish... it takes the attention off of Him and puts it on to us. 

I hope these thoughts might be convicting to some of y'all as they were for me. Enjoy this beautiful Sunday.

Love Y'all, 

Kacey