Useful For His KingdomSample

I recently had a single-service coffee maker in the kitchen that stopped working. It would make all of the sounds like it should when a cup of coffee was being brewed. It would light up like it should when a cup of coffee was being brewed. But no matter how long I stood there waiting for the cup of coffee to be poured out, nothing came out at all. You can imagine where this coffee maker wound up (and, no, it wasn’t on the kitchen counter anymore).

The coffee maker’s usefulness determined where and how it was positioned. Likewise, your usefulness to the Lord and His agenda determines the providential pathway He leads you on. Will you take the goodies and run? Or will you, like a wise businessperson, reinvest the assets of blessings He gives you in order to build a greater opportunity for growth, influence, and impact than ever before?

In Luke 14, God tells us how He feels about useless saints. In using salt as a comparison, Jesus explains,

“Therefore, salt is good; but if salt should lose its taste, how will it be made salty? It isn’t t for the soil or for the manure pile; they throw it out. Let anyone who has ears to hear listen.” (Luke 14:34–35)

Like my coffee maker that could no longer make coffee, saltless salt is “thrown out.” A kingdom orientation must accompany and inform all that you do or you, too, will become useless for the kingdom.

God established His domain in such a way that His agenda exists to bring Him glory and expand His rule. We have each been called to the kingdom for such a purpose as this. When we shy away from this purpose out of selfishness, greed, or apathy, we cause ourselves to be useless for His kingdom.