I don’t know where it comes from or why its a phrase that is stuck somewhere in my neural pathways. Maybe it was a teaching, maybe it was book or a movie… not that it matters.
The phrase is:
Always be useful. but remember that when you are useful, people will use you.
There is a bit of play on words, to mean that although you will be useful, you will also be used by people.
The inherent problem being that it is quite possible that you will gauge your own value on your “usefulness”
John flips it a bit and puts perspective on the sentiment.
“Those who are loved by God, let His love continually pour from you to one another, because God is love…”
(1 John 4:7 TPT)
Give and keep giving.
What you have is because God provided.
Your purpose is to Glorify God by serving those around you.
(not to be “useful”)
Your value is not in what you give or that you are always giving but in God’s Love for you.
“…This is love: He loved us long before we loved Him. It was his love, not ours….”
(1 John 4:10 TPT)
If you get the understanding right, you realise that people do not want you in the room because you often have what they need, but because you bring something with you into the room:
Understanding, Compassion… Love.
You bring Jesus and the Holy Spirit into unexpected places.
