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Are You the Sanded or the
Sandee?
by Rose Murdock We often cry out to God and say, "Lord use me! I’m a willing vessel! Use me for Your purposes!" And God, of course, will use us for His purposes if we are willing. But I want to present you with a word of caution because I don’t want to see anyone deceived about this. The end goal of this cry should not be just to get God to use us for His purposes, but rather to become a vessel of honor. Do you know that God can ‘use’ a person to bring about His purposes and that person can still be lost? Look at Judas. He was used for God’s purposes, wasn’t he? He was used to betray Jesus into the hands of those who killed Him. It was God’s purpose for Jesus to be killed and bear our sins and sicknesses on the cross and Judas was the vessel used to bring about that purpose. Since Judas was used to bring about God’s purpose then shouldn’t he be honored? No, of course not. He betrayed Jesus. There are many people out there being used as vessels of dishonor rather than vessels of honor. There are many people that God will use to accomplish His purposes but that doesn’t always mean that they themselves will be saved. They have a choice. Judas had a choice. He could have done the right thing and been saved. Everyone can be saved if they choose to. I’m not saying that God has pre-destined some people to do evil and end up in hell. No, God gives everyone the choice. But the choice doesn’t come to us with the question—Do you want to reject God, die and go to hell? It’s much more subtle than that. And we need to understand that just because God might ‘use’ us to bring about His purpose doesn’t necessarily mean that all is well with us. The Bible says that in a great house there are many vessels, some to honor and some to dishonor (2 Timothy 2:20). Think for a minute about sandpaper. Sandpaper is a tool that can be used to smooth out the rough edges of a beautiful sculpture. But consider this, the more the sandpaper is used on the sculpture the more beautiful the sculpture becomes (Up until the point when it is finished). But the more the sandpaper is used, the less valuable it becomes. Once that sandpaper has lost it’s sandiness then it’s no longer worth anything. Has it been used to accomplish something beautiful? Yes. But it is not something beautiful. We have a choice. Are we going to be a vessel that allows the Lord to mold us into what He wants and as a result become a beautiful sculpture, or are we going to be the sandpaper that rubs off the rough spots on others and as a result end up worthless ourselves? We may think we are being used of God when we speak words of truth to others concerning their faults or sin etc. And we may be correct. And God may use what we say to bring them closer to Him. It will be painful for them but if they have a willing and humble heart they can use what you said to draw closer to the Lord and allow more rough edges to be sanded off. But what happens to you in the process? You may feel good that ‘God used you’ to ‘minister’ to this person but if it was done contrary to the ways of God—the ways of love and humility—then you are not being ‘used’ but being ‘used up’ and before long you will have no value yourself. Remember what Jesus said in Matthew 7:22-23,
These people apparently speak for the Lord, take authority over the demonic and do many other things in His name but they are also workers of iniquity. I see these people as the sandpaper. They may be used to do things for the Lord but they themselves are not vessels of honor. They rub other people the wrong way and God will use that to perfect others, just as He can use any trial or tribulation we go through to bring us farther into perfection and maturity. But while they are rubbing others the wrong way they are being used as a vessel of dishonor, not of honor. They want to perfect everyone else, but not themselves. They think they are a tool that brings correction and growth to others, and God will use them to do that. But the price they pay for that is that they themselves will be dishonored and possibly even lost forever. Why? Because they will not allow themselves to be molded by the Master. They are too busy looking at everyone else’s imperfections. Those are tough words but I know that I myself would rather see the truth now rather than later after it’s all said and done, wouldn’t you? Joseph’s brothers were used to put Joseph in a position that was rough for many years but he ended up in a position of honor. Joseph allowed himself to be molded by the Lord to prepare him for his position of honor so he wouldn’t be full of pride and arrogance when he got there. He needed to be able to forgive his brothers so that Israel could be saved. Weren’t Joseph’s brothers used to bring about God’s purpose and therefore be honored? No, because they were disobedient to the ways of God. They were malicious and selfish. They were the sandpaper, and doing what they did to Joseph made them a dishonorable vessel for the Lord. Yes God used it, but no honor goes to them for what they did. We need to be careful when we have a strong desire for God to use us. We need to make sure we are allowing Him to do the work in us that is necessary. We need to allow Him to shape us into what He desires us to be. God doesn’t want to use us to correct or perfect others by rubbing them the wrong way, irritating them, speaking harsh words—even if words of truth—to them. But He wants us to allow ourselves to be shaped into that vessel of honor and then the vessel we’ve become can be used properly to build up, edify, strengthen and equip the rest of the body so all of us together can accomplish the purposes of God. Any truth that we speak must be spoken in love, humbly considering that it’s only by the grace of God that we ourselves can even see the truth (See Galatians 6:1 and Ephesians 4:15). God doesn’t need you to perfect others. There are plenty—in fact way too many—vessels of dishonor already out there giving us opportunity to be sanded and matured. And the truth is that even many of us who desire to be vessels of honor still slip up from time to time causing those around us to be rubbed the wrong way. So we don’t need to be looking for opportunities to ‘perfect’ others, but rather we need to be looking at how our own ways can please the Lord.
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