God Doesn't Have a Junk Drawer

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Have you ever bought a small battery for a camera or watch only to open the package and find that it doesn’t fit the device for which you purchased it? If you have, you understand the frustration of purchasing something with a specific purpose in mind and finding that it fails to meet the need at hand. It’s utterly frustrating because not only have you wasted resources, but you also have a device that isn’t functioning as it should and a battery wasting its power in the back of a drawer full of useless items that might come in handy someday.
As random as this seems, I thought of this as I was reading through a passage in Isaiah this week. God created man with a specific purpose in mind—to bring Him glory. Man utterly failed at that when Satan entered into the garden, lied to man (and woman), enticed him to eat of the forbidden fruit, and disabled man from his intended purpose. Fortunately for us, God purchased us with the precious blood of His only Son so that we could once again function as we were originally intended. Seeing as we are living in a body of flesh in a fallen world, not one of us brings Him glory 100% of the time, but fortunately for us, God doesn’t chunk us out or store us away in the back of a drawer to waste away forgotten until we no longer have any worth at all. Instead, He infuses us with His power.
As I read through this middle portion of Isaiah while studying about idol worship, I found a common thought reoccurring. In 43:7, God says He calls His own from the ends of the earth: “Everyone who is called by My name and whom I have formed for My glory, whom I have formed, even whom I have made” (NASB). In 43:21, He speaks of the “people whom I formed for Myself” declaring His praise. In 44:2, God speaks of making His chosen ones and forming them from the womb, and then in verse 21 of the same chapter says, “I have formed you, you are My servant.” A few verses later (vs. 24), the Lord speaks of being Israel’s redeemer, “who formed you from the womb.”  If God says something once, we should certainly listen, but when He says the same thing over and over again, I think we should see the bold truth He is trying to highlight. He created us for His specific purpose—for Himself, and if we are not bringing Him glory with our lives, we are as good as wasting away in the back of a drawer full of useless items--and God doesn't have a junk drawer, people!

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