Vessels :)

I was talking to a friend the other day and we were discussing how there are some people who just light up for Christ. How they’re vessels for Him and it seems like the more they give, the more they get, and the brighter their light gets. It’s been a week or so since that conversation, but it’s been in the back of my mind, so when I read my devotional this morning, it hit me a little harder. This is from Corrie ten Boom’s book, “Each New Day”. (The quotes from the book are in gray, and the words of the Bible are in green)

April 30th
We are common earthenware jars, filled with the treasure of the riches of God. The jar is not important—the treasure is everything.“But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.”
2 Corinthians 4:7 KJV

(Corrie ends her little devotional with a prayer and I’m going to put that here also.)

Father, it is a testimony to Your glory that something so common as our weak bodies may possess Your riches. Only a true Artist can make full use of humble materials. I don’t think I’ve ever looked at it that way exactly. I mean, I knew we were vessels for Christ, but when Corrie says “The jar is not important” but the "treasure is everything", she changed my perspective completely! In her life, she truly died to self and told God that her “jar” wasn’t important. And what a cost for her! She was in German camps for years, lost all of her family, and yet… She told God all that she had was his; she allowed Him to come and take over her vessel.
Am I being persecuted as she was? Am I beaten for my faith? Do I have to secretly meet to speak about my Savior? No. Then how is it so hard for me to lay my selfishness down and tell God that He can move in? I get so frustrated with myself for not being able to lay it all down!! And then I realize; it’s impossible for me to lay it down all by myself. Hello! I have a God that can do anything and yet I try to do it all myself?? Wake up, Mik! Not only did our Jesus show us how to lay it down; He will HELP you lay it down! He has to continually say that to me, because I guess I have a little brain and I forget it easily. Thank goodness for His never-ending patience and grace and mercy! I would be nowhere without it!!