Now before you get me wrong, I’m not talking about people who are feeling spiritually inadequate because they’re lazy and don’t bother do to anything. I’m talking about people who are genuinely trying to do the will of God, but just don’t think they’re being as useful as some other Christian that seems to be affecting more people. You have to remember this…

Ephesians 2:10 For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

God has created you differently than that other Christian that is affecting more people.  You have a different role. Spiritual success is not measured by how many people you affect – it’s measured by fulfilling what God has told you to do.  Obedience.

If God asked you to minister to a single specific person at work, but instead you go and become a missionary to Hawaii – even though you might be ministering to dozens of people there, you are being disobedient to God.

If you are a mother, and you have been charged with raising that kid, then your God given task is to raise that kid in a godly way.  How is obeying that task any less important than a pastor obeying his God given task? If God has called you to be an accountant, then you possibly might be called to minister to people at your work.  Maybe you’re supposed to lead Sunday School at church. 

And of course you’re always supposed to be ministering to your family.

So what do I do?

To be spiritually ‘useful’, really is obedience.  And to be obedient we have to know what God wants us to do.  And to know what he wants us to do, we have to look to see where we fit into the body of Christ.

To do this we need to look at two things:

1. How God made you, and

2. Where God has you.

1.  How God made you. Take stock of your gifts, talents and resources which equal your callings (see this devotional for more). Ask your friends and family to help you think about what your gifts, talents and resources are. Don’t just think about the type of job you might have, think of things like what types of people are you good with.  Think of the things you’ve dealt with in the past that may help others.

2.  Where God has you. Then match up your callings (your gifts, talents and resource) with situations or people (see this devotional for more on this).

Situations.  Situations would be things like which job should I take, how should I raise my kids, should I join the worship team, should we host Thanksgiving dinner? People. Think about the people in your life.  Do you have something that clicks with them? God has designed us differently for different purposes, all for his glory.  We just need to figure out how he designed us and for what purposes if we are to maximize our service and obedience to him. So ultimately what I’m trying to say is this, figure out your place in the body of Christ and be content to be what God created you to be. 

And don’t compare yourself to some other Christian, some pastor or a good looking, devotional writing Asian.

1CO 12:14 Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. [15] If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. [16] And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. [17] If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? [18] But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. [19] If they were all one part, where would the body be? [20] As it is, there are many parts, but one body.

Take Time To Pray: Ask God to help you figure out where in the body of Christ you are and gratefulness for creating you how He did. Today’s Fruit of the Spirit: Faithfulness.  Faithfulness to stick to what God has planned for you. You might feel a little bit inadequate when you compare your spiritual usefulness to others.  Maybe you feel like you’re not quite as useful to God because you don’t minister to hundreds of people like your pastor, or you don’t bring dozens of people to Christ, or you don’t have an inconsistently updated online devotional.