Dirty China

Read: 2 Timothy 2:19-22

But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some to honour, and some to dishonour.              

                                                                                                                 2 Timothy 2:20 

     Imagine finally getting the opportunity to go out to eat at a very fine restaurant. The menu is mouth-wateringly appetizing, and as you sit down to eat, the waiter comes out, doing all the things they do at a proper restaurant. He is dressed in a neatly pressed white apron that dangles just inches above the floor; he greets you in his overly-practiced maitre d’ voice. He gives you the cloth napkin and the ten or twelve spoons and forks they always lay out for you to use. But, imagine your shock when he sets your water with lemon in front of you in a finely made glass – covered in crusty food left over from the patrons before you. Not only would you not want to drink out of it, you would probably not even want to touch it. It would be an enormous disappointment to find something so unusable in such a refined place. You would probably be relieved if they just brought you a plastic cup that you could actually feel comfortable drinking from.

     Many Christians grow up to live lives that resemble a dirty, fine china glass. They have all the advantages of a useful vessel. They have been trained well, and they have the look on the outside of a vessel that many would think had great potential. But God knows their thoughts, and He sees their hearts. It makes no difference how useful they should be. The fact is, they are no more useful to God than a vessel that is much less qualified. God would more likely use a vessel that may not look as polished but is clean than He would use a very distinguished-looking vessel that is dirty.

     When God runs you through the “dishwasher” of His Word, allow it to cleanse you. Don’t resist His purging and cleaning in your life. He is not scrubbing the deepest recesses of your heart because He wants to make your life hard but because He wants to make your life useful. God is like us in that He will only use a clean vessel. If He washes and scrubs and purges, and we don’t come clean, then He will have to set us on the shelf. Not only would that be a sad and miserable existence, but also a disheartening disappointment because of the lost potential.

 

Quote of the day: “Well done is better than well said.”