A Noble Purpose

2 Timothy 2:20-21
In a large house there are articles not only of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay; some are for noble purposes and some for ignoble. If a man cleanses himself from the latter, he will be an instrument for noble purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work.

We all want to be used by God, don’t we? We all want to be "useful to the Master" in a way that no one else is - to have our own special niche. We hope, we pray, we may even study. But this verse makes it clear that, while all that stuff is great, until we cleanse ourselves of our "ignoble purposes," we cannot be used for noble ones.

What are ignoble purposes? Well, I can’t tell you what yours are - I could tell you what mine are. I could make a dirty laundry list of all the ways that I disobey God, or do not apply His truth to my life. It would be ugly, and I’m afraid it would be long.

Now, I’m pretty certain that I will never be completely rid of all this junk in my life, at least not until I leave this earthly body, but I will try. I think the most important thing is to simply take it one "item" at a time. When God brings something to our attention, we need to act on it. We need to apply to our lives the truth that God shows us. It’s difficult, I know.

I was talking with my sister about how we’re lucky if we can apply 10% of what we learn from God to our lives. Oh, how I wish it could be more like 90% - I would even be happy with 50%. But when we take a good look at the Bible, it becomes obvious that God knew we would be this way - having to go over and over and over again the most basic of principles, just so that we can begin to apply them.

But, we need to apply them, there-in lies the key. We cannot just rid ourselves of these ignoble purposes on our own, and if we could, we would have to replace them with something. The only way we can replace the junk in our lives with something of value is through the Word of God. If we do not replace them with the noble purposes of God, then they will just be replaced by more junk - worse junk. And what happens when we let God place in us a noble purpose? We are made holy, useful to the Master, and prepared to do any good work! He forms us and prepares us to do anything that He would bring our way, whether we think we’re qualified or not.

So, let’s start weeding out the junk in our lives, by reading the Word of God. Let’s read it, and soak in it, and let it permeate our every cell, so that we can then apply its truth. Then, let’s watch how God begins to use us!! As my daughter would say, "Yee-haw, let’s ride!!!"