Used by God: Sarah Bessey

From Sarah Bessey:

“God wants to use you.”

I have had to yank that lie right out of the ground, burn it like chaff. I know we mean well, of course we do. We say things like: “oh,  I just want to be used by God!” We sing songs: “use me, Jesus!” and we mean so well. When we say “used by God” we mean that we want our lives to count for something bigger than ourselves. Perhaps it’s because we have bought into the evangelical hero complex, and now we think God wants big, God wants important, God wants power and famous celebrities and cable television, God has big, important work to do in the world, so it’s time to do our part….

The language we use matters because our words tip our hand. Our words reveal what we truly think and believe about God, don’t they? Perhaps it’s semantics, molehill-to-mountain-making (it wouldn’t be the first time I did that, as we all know), but the word “use” makes the hackles on the back of my neck brindle now, my blood get a bit hot: here I go:  I don’t believe God wants to use me. Not in the least…

God saved you because he loves you and longs to restore you to relationship. You were rescued and redeemed to bewith God. He delights in you. He yearns to walk with you, to be with you, to see you become fully human, fully alive, fully your own self.

God does not want to use you: God wants to be with you because he loves you.

There’s the hint in his name itself: Immanuel. His very name is God with us. Not God to us. Not God using us. Not God for us. Not God managing us. Not God working us. Not God manipulating or puppeteering us – he tipped his own hand right there in Isaiah with the word about the Word, he is God with us.