Which tool are you?
When a brother very carefully climbs a row of 8 inch block to do a job, what do you do for him? You pass the tools! The ‘tool passer’ in this picture is my friend, Stan. We were working to roof a church in Belize. Stan is giving a tool to a young man who is a member of that church. Stan, and the picture, is a great example of a necessary ministry principle.
God doesn’t call Lone Rangers to His service. He calls us to serve Him in community. 
He gives us spiritual gifts, but none of us has every gift. If nothing else existed to show our need for each other, that would be enough. This is easily recognized when you are in need. When your fellow believers need your gifts and abilities, focus can get a little fuzzy. That’s because we never fully escape looking at the world with ourselves in the center. And we often fail to correctly identify the needed tool.
First Commandment love is a call to God-type love. Love for God is to go beyond our possessions and consume our being. That’s how God loves you and me. He didn’t give a possession to meet our need, He gave Himself in the Person of Jesus Christ. That is what you and I must do. We don’t have a tool God requires, we are the tool He requires. It’s not flattering to think of yourself as a resident of God’s toolbox, but in a sense that is what you are. The question is whether or not you are willing to be used by Him, at His time, for His purpose, for His glory? Jesus did that, and so must we.
The TOOL is not in charge!
To make unflattering comparisons evenhanded, God compares His ministers to beasts of burden by saying not to muzzle the ox that treads out the grain.
God got His message to Balaam through the mouth of a donkey. As a minister, missionary, and evangelist I try not to take myself too seriously! The work is serious, but it’s not at all about me. And oxen and donkeys provide a closing thought for us tools. An average horse can pull a 700-800 lb. load. Two horses can pull about 1,500 lbs. right? Wrong. Together, they can pull about 3,000!
We, too, can accomplish unbelievable things together!
Stan didn’t just hand someone a hammer. Stan was God’s tool in that time and place to further the work of the Kingdom. There is no way this ministry would have the opportunities before us if it weren’t for a bunch of folks like him.
Are you in the toolbox or out?
To reach forward, we need more tools from the tool box! 
Will you be God’s tool for prayer? How about a hands-on mission opportunity? If you can’t go, you can be God’s tool to send someone who can. Can’t go or fully send? Equip a team with training materials for pastors or Bibles. Be God’s tool to meet the regular expenses of this ministry. There is always a way. Pick up this prayer challenge: Lord, take me out of the tool box and use me as You see fit!
God bless you, and…
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