GOD ALMIGHTY NEEDS YOU
Sakkie Parsons
Someone writes to me and says that she feels so “useless.”
She feels that she no longer has any purpose in this life.
Perhaps you know someone who feels the same, with whom you might want to share this “thought from the Word.”
What I am about to say to you now, please take very, very seriously, because—put simply—it is the pure, real truth.
You can be just as certain of this as you know that you are alive while you are reading this.
In God’s eyes, you are not “useless.”
He created you—and can you imagine, even for one moment, that Almighty God would ever decide:
“I now feel like creating something ‘useless’”?
Not only did He create you with a definite specific reason and purpose—but the mere fact that you are able to read what I am writing here is proof to you that He wants to use you. And not only to use you, but that HE – Almighty God – still needs you to do something for Him in this life. And even if you can do nothing more than simply live, then live in such a way that people can see Jesus in and through you.
In this regard, I want to show you something in the Word.
We read:
2 Timothy 4:2–5
2 Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction.
3 For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.
4 They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.
5 But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.
I now want to show you a few things in the Word as I understand them and try to the best of my ability to live them out in my own life.
Let us be consistent and honest now –
You will not achieve much today with most of the people around you—and that includes many of your loved ones—if you were to do toward them exactly what 2 Timothy 4:2 says:
“Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching,” – and if you were to do this literally, exactly as it is written there.
To be honest, I cannot be far wrong—and decide in your own heart whether I am speaking the truth or not— in many cases, if you proclaim the Gospel to them in this way every time you see them, hell—not heaven—is going to break loose around your head.
And the reason is simple, because we are already living in the time of which the Word tells us in this very same passage:
2 Timothy 4:3-4
3 For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.
4 They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.
So now the question is:
What does the Word mean when we read, “Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching,” in 2 Timothy 4:2?
Well, I think Francis of Assisi summed it up very beautifully when he said this already hundreds of years ago—and I am now sharing it with you in my own words, because at the moment I cannot remember his exact wording:
“Proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ to everyone you meet, at every possible opportunity—and then, if it is necessary, use words as well.”
In other words—
Let people everywhere you go first and always see Jesus in and through you and your life.
Put differently—
You are a child of God.
So let people everywhere you go see the family likeness of Jesus in and through you.
I now quote again for you the last part of our Scripture passage in this ‘thought from the Word’ that applies to you.
Then I close by once again sharing the first part of our Scripture passage with you—and as you read it, remember that you are not “useless” to our Lord. And as I also like to say to people, I now say it again to you:
Live your life as a child of God. In other words, preach your sermon through your life, proclaiming Jesus’ loving, saving grace everywhere you go.
2 Timothy 4:5
5 But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.
So, go and think a little about what I have now shared with you, and then remember that you are very “useful” to our Lord. That is why He created you, and that is why you are still on this earth.
Stand up straight again in your spirit, pull your shoulders back, and:
2 Timothy 4:2
2 Preach the word (through your life); be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. (and then, if it might be necessary, use words as well).
Greetings,
Sakkie