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Oct 13, 2016

As believers, we love the Lord Jesus Christ, and we want to do something for our Savior who gave Himself for us.

It’s normal for us to want to serve Him. So we ask God questions like, “What do You want me to do for You?”, “Lord, what should I do to serve You?”, and “How can You use me?”

The trouble with these kinds of questions is they suggest God created us primarily for the purpose of our doing something for Him. Actually, the desire of God’s heart when He created mankind wasn’t for us to do something for Him. What God deeply desired was that He would be joined to us and that we would be filled with Him.

The first thing we have to consider actually isn’t what we should do, but how we were made. The Bible tells us that God made us human beings as vessels.

Romans 9:23 says: “In order that He might make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He had before prepared unto glory.”

What is a vessel? A vessel is a receptacle; it’s meant to hold something. In fact, its sole purpose for existing is to contain something. That’s why it was made.

God, the divine Potter, created us human beings as vessels to contain Him. We exist to contain God Himself.

The Bible shows us that God wants a relationship with human beings that is subjective and intimate. He gains this by coming into them and being joined with them. From the very beginning, God’s intention was for mankind to have His divine life and enjoy all that He is. Through this, we would live a life that expresses Him.

If a vessel is empty, the purpose for which it was made remains unfulfilled. This explains why before we were saved we felt so empty and purposeless. Without the life of God in us, the reason for our existence was unrealized.

But when we believed in Christ, the purpose of our existence as vessels was fulfilled: we received Christ as the life-giving Spirit into our spirit! He came into us, and now He’s living in us as our content. Praise God, we’re no longer empty vessels!

Sometimes, however, even though we have Christ living in us, we forget about Him and live as though He’s not there. For example, we may decide to do a particular thing because when we consider it, it seems like a good thing to do. This is actually doing things by ourselves and according to our own judgment, rather than living by Christ in us.

In contrast to this, consider 2 Corinthians 4:7: “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God and not out of us.”

Footnote 2 in the Recovery Version explains, “This treasure, the indwelling Christ, in us, the earthen vessels, is the divine source of the supply of the Christian life.”

Christ died and resurrected not only to redeem us, but also to indwell us to be the divine source of our Christian life. He is now united and joined to us in a very personal, subjective way. Since He lives in us, He doesn’t want us to serve Him according to our well-meaning intentions, good ideas, and natural energy. When we do, we’re apart from Him. Instead, He wants us to serve according to Him, the Christ who lives in us. When we serve that way, the excellency of the power is truly of God and not of us.

To see this means we realize it’s not so much what is being done for God but who is doing it that’s important. Christ wants to be the One doing things with us and through us.

Our tendency is to pray, “Lord, what do you want me to do for You?” But what would make Him happier is if we were to pray, “Lord, what are You doing? What do You want to do in me and through me? I don’t want to do good things that are for You, yet do them apart from You. I want to be one with You. Lord, be my source in all my serving.”

How can we experience Him as our divine source?

Our initial receiving of Christ as our content was once and for all. Thank the Lord, nothing can undo or change this fact! We are saved eternally and can never lose the treasure of Christ in us.

But, for Christ to be the source of our living and doing in actuality, we need to enjoy Him as the treasure every day. Then we’ll be one with Him in our living and serving.

The most crucial thing for a vessel is to be open. If it’s covered with a lid or closed up, it can’t receive anything. To receive and enjoy more of Christ freshly every day, we vessels have to be uncovered and open.

Sins, for example, can become like a lid, covering us and keeping us from receiving and enjoying more of Christ. To get rid of this lid, we can simply confess our sins to Him and be cleansed with His precious blood. Then, we will again have a free way to enjoy the wonderful treasure in us.

At other times, our hearts may become cold toward the Lord. We get preoccupied with things other than the Lord, our hearts turn away from Him, and we become closed to Him. But we can turn back to Him by simply calling upon His dear name. As we call, our hearts are warmed up and opened to Him again, and we can receive more of Christ as our content.

Sometimes we intentionally close our heart to Him when He touches a specific matter in our heart that we don’t want Him to touch. Instead of remaining in a closed state, unable to receive or enjoy the Lord, we can pray a simple prayer to Him like this: “Lord, I open to You again. I open my heart to You. I don’t want any part of my heart to be closed to You. I want to receive You and enjoy You as my life.” As we pray this way, we experience His grace with us, and we receive more of Him.

By taking time daily to receive and enjoy Christ in His Word and by prayer, we give Him the proper place in our lives as our source. When we pay attention to Christ in us, letting Him speak to us and lead us concerning what He wants to do in and through us, our serving will be in oneness with Him. He will be the one serving in us and through us.

Then our serving will be pleasing to God, whether it’s preaching the gospel, caring for younger believers, ministering to the needy, leading a Bible study, praying for others, or anything else.

God is happy when we serve Him by being one with the Christ who lives in us. And, as vessels fulfilling our purpose, we are happy, too.

We can pray, “Thank You, Lord Jesus, for creating me as a vessel to contain You as my treasure. Lord, thank You for coming into me and wanting me to be one with You. Thank You, Lord, that I can open to You to receive more of You and enjoy You as my content. Keep me in oneness with You so my life will issue in something pleasing to You. I give myself to be open to You to receive your fresh filling each day.”