It’s good to recognize how God uses people to accomplish His will. If we make this personal, it’s good to know and recognize how the Lord uses you and I individually.

Dr. Samuel Brengle was a Commisioner for the Salvation Army in the 1930s. He is credited with many great books and teachings on holiness. This quote of his especially stood out to me:

If I appear great in their eyes, the Lord is most graciously helping me to see how absolutely nothing I am without Him and helping me to keep little in my own eyes. He does use me, but I am only concerned that He uses me, for it is not of me the work is done. The ax cannot boast of the trees it has cut down. It could do nothing but for the woodsman. He made it, he sharpened it, and he used it. The moment he throws it aside, it becomes only old iron. Oh, that I may never lose sight of this.

Dr. Brengle’s posture of humility is inspiring to me. He recognized the need for God to use him, but equally recognized God could use anyone He chose. The Lord is the woodsman holding the ax. We are simply a tool in His hands.

What an honor.

My husband has a garage full of tools. When he works on different projects, he needs specific ones for specific jobs. Therefore, each one is important in the moment. And he values each of them equally even if he doesn’t use all of them all of the time.

I think this is a good picture of our value in the Lord’s hands. We have been made in His image and crafted for specific purposes and use. We are each similar and yet also very unique. You have giftings I don’t have– and visa-versa. And it is our uniqueness that makes the Body of Christ so beautiful.

Humbly, we can recognize that individually, we are not the whole body. We are only a part. My part is important and so is yours. Paul said, “But as it is, God has arranged each one of the parts in the body just as He wanted” (1 Corinthians 12:18). He went on to say, “And if they were all the same part, where would the body be?” (vs. 19).

The beauty is not in the parts. The beauty is the hands that hold, fashion, and make use of the parts.

Needed, Wanted, and Valuable

For many years I wrestled with comparison and feelings of inadequacy. Eventually I realized the enemy was behind both of those attacks. Just because my husband needed to use the hammer and not the wrench doesn’t make the wrench any less needed, wanted, or valuable to him.

And the same is true of us.

As Paul continued writing to the Corinthians about the body, he said, “But desire the greater gifts, [yet] I will show you an even better way” (1 Corinthians 12:31). The question that arises when we read this is, if there’s a better or greater gift, isn’t that the one I should want? Yes– but for clarification, the “better or greater gift” is simply the one you need at the time.

And more importantly, the more excellent way is the way of love.

This is the picture of the woodsman and the ax. God is love. We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works (Ephesians 2:10). We were created for His pleasure. And as we humbly recognize and yield to His authority in our lives, He can use us in greater ways to accomplish His purposes.

I’ll say it again: what an honor.

I pray as you prepare your day and week that you pause and consider these truths. How are you being used by the Lord? Are you yielding to His nudges? Are you flexible in His hands? Are you confident and secure in His love when nothing seems to be happening? “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that He may exalt you at the proper time” (1 Peter 5:6).