Use What You Have

Use What You Have

Ever have an idea in your head and it’s just amazing but you feel you’ll never be able to achieve it? Ever feel like that just won’t happen to you? Ever feel it’s too big of a goal or task and you just don’t have what it takes?

Yeah…I’ve been there… about a lot of different things. But one thing God is showing me while I’m here in SA is to use what you have. Use what God has given you.

I realized this sitting in a little preschool locked behind an iron barred door.

Over one hundred colored pencils were dumped onto this table so they could be sharpened and then the children could start their school day off with sharp pencils. They were so pitiful looking. So old. So used. I thought to myself, “I have so much I have to be doing right now, sharpening pencils shouldn’t be one of them. I would rather be teaching the children instead. That’s where I would rather be. I didn’t fly thousands of miles to sharpen pencils.” But little did I know – yes I did.

God can send you thousands of miles from your home to sharpen pencils to speak to you and humble you. Sounds crazy, but He does that.

LoKey (Loutjie), man who is completely blind in one eye, and the other eye can only see shadows, sat down to sharpen pencils. He was born with no fingers but he still managed to hold the pencil, the sharpener, and twist them.

Sharpening the last pencil forty minutes later, I had three blisters on my hand. You see, in America we use an electric pencil sharpener so we don’t have to worry about blisters.

I was ashamed of myself when I realized that I was grumbling because of my blisters when I should have been thanking God I have fingers to even blister. LoKey doesn’t have fingers. I didn’t hear him complaining about it. I saw him use what he had and he did it for the Lord.

Like the little boy up on the mountain. He gave the Lord what He had – five loaves and two fish. Twisting those pencils again and again, God showed me this about that event.

1. The boy had something.

2. The boy was present where the Lord was.

3. They boy gave what He had.

And what did the Lord do? He blessed it and multiplied it. Over five thousand people were fed that day because Jesus used what the boy had.

Even sharpening pencils, scrubbing toilets, or teaching rowdy children – all of that is for the Kingdom of God. He uses all of it. And He blesses it.

So don’t think that you’ll never amount to anyone, or what you do is insignificant. Jesus died for the richest and the poorest. He came for the weakest and the lowliest, and I’m glad He did for that’s who I am.

I need to be thankful for what God has given to me and use it for Him.

God has given you what it takes for the task He has put ahead of you whether we realize it or not. Use what He has given you to serve Him and when we do that, it will be a blessing to others.

*Through this lesson, yes there are some new colored pencils on the way to SA for these preschools. If anybody would like to donate money to this ministry, please go and give to http://www.OnePlusGod.org. Thank you!