I read an article today about how many years ago Dr. Ben Carson saved the life of a child thought to have an inoperable brain tumor. See the article here.
The following excerpt leapt out at me:
There, after troubling scans and an unsuccessful operation, even Carson warned the couple there was little hope for their son. In Carson’s telling, the parents responded firmly, “The Lord is going to heal him, and he’s going to use you to do it.” Carson went on to remove the tumor. He calls the event a “revelation.” The patient, Christopher Pylant, calls it a “miracle.”
We routinely pray for those with serious health problems and in those prayers we typically pray for God to use the doctors and nurses and other hospital personnel, granting them wisdom and a steady hand. In short, we are praying that God will use them as His instruments. Sometimes we are praying for a miracle, sometimes merely that what is normally routine stays routine.
It is easy to see health care professionals in the role of instruments of God. It can be much harder to see ourselves in that role. And yet we are. Is God going to lift a drowning man out of the water and place him on dry land? Certainly He can. But more likely He is going to place one of us, His instrument, in a position to rescue that man.
On occasions we may even recognize that God has put us in a particular position at a particular time in order to be His instrument. But many times it is not so obvious. Looking back over the years I can recognize many people that influenced my walk towards Christ, sometimes by a single action or word. But I did not recognize it at the time, and I am certain they had no idea how God was using them.
So we should pray, not only that God uses others as His intruments, but that He uses us.