{"id":11672,"date":"2023-02-20T11:42:56","date_gmt":"2023-02-20T16:42:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.stephaniestaples.com\/?p=11672"},"modified":"2023-02-20T11:43:19","modified_gmt":"2023-02-20T16:43:19","slug":"vessels-of-honor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.stephaniestaples.com\/stephologie\/vessels-of-honor\/","title":{"rendered":"Vessels of Honor"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #333333;\">\u201c<em>You will never be a fully empty vessel. YOU will always be a part of whatever God does through you.<\/em>\u201d Someone recently shared these words with me and helped shift my idealistic but not biblical perspective on life and ministry. Trying to completely empty myself had often hindered me from pursuing and enjoying my calling more vigorously.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>One of the Pastors I listened to often in my early days of faith would always pray, \u201c<em>Lord give me the grace to disappear so that you may appear.<\/em>\u201d I adopted that prayer as my own; it has become almost a mantra before any ministry engagement or concert. It\u2019s beautiful and I still lean into this idea. But God delights in using US. We are his workmanship. He has gifted us with specific personalities, abilities and even some quirks. It is not US but the sin in us\u2014the desire to be our own personal ruler\/God\u2014that corrupts us\/our work. It is sin, not our re-created selves that causes us to utilize our God-given gifts for our own personal gain.<\/p>\n<p>This is an important distinction because if we believe that anything related to our own fully redeemed in Christ personality is evil or corrupted we will be paralyzed and unable to function as God intends.<\/p>\n<p>I have spent years fearfully and tediously trying to serve God, begging him to keep me from corrupting his work, as though my participation would certainly lead it to ruin. I have struggled to enjoy any of it. I thought God was using me in spite of myself and not because he actually intentionally put things into me that had value. I do not want to walk in that kind of shame anymore.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cThe Lord delights in you. If you have a hard time receiving those words you need to ask yourself why.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>God delights in our humanness\u2014our gifts, talents, inadequacies and neediness do not cause him offense. They each provide rich opportunities for him to be able to work. Our strengths (and weaknesses) are gifts, not burdens. SELF that has died to sin through the blood of Christ is free to live in the light of the Spirit. We don\u2019t need to hide or be ashamed. A self that has been given to Jesus is not a stench to God but a delight.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cYou will never be a fully empty vessel. YOU will always be a part of whatever God does through you.\u201d Someone recently shared these words with me and helped shift my idealistic but not biblical perspective on life and ministry. Trying to completely empty myself had often hindered me from pursuing and enjoying my calling&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11673,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[210],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Vessels of Honor | Stephanie Staples<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.stephaniestaples.com\/stephologie\/vessels-of-honor\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Vessels of Honor | Stephanie Staples\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u201cYou will never be a fully empty vessel. YOU will always be a part of whatever God does through you.\u201d Someone recently shared these words with me and helped shift my idealistic but not biblical perspective on life and ministry. Trying to completely empty myself had often hindered me from pursuing and enjoying my calling...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.stephaniestaples.com\/stephologie\/vessels-of-honor\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Stephanie Staples\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/stephaniestaplesmusic\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/stephaniestaplesmusic\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-02-20T16:42:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-02-20T16:43:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.stephaniestaples.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/empty-vessel.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1333\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Stephanie Staples\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@https:\/\/twitter.com\/stephologie\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@stephologie\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Stephanie Staples\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.stephaniestaples.com\/stephologie\/vessels-of-honor\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.stephaniestaples.com\/stephologie\/vessels-of-honor\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Stephanie Staples\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.stephaniestaples.com\/#\/schema\/person\/f26435c7916eb55ca7b7b07edd1e09ae\"},\"headline\":\"Vessels of Honor\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-02-20T16:42:56+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-02-20T16:43:19+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.stephaniestaples.com\/stephologie\/vessels-of-honor\/\"},\"wordCount\":394,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.stephaniestaples.com\/#\/schema\/person\/f26435c7916eb55ca7b7b07edd1e09ae\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.stephaniestaples.com\/stephologie\/vessels-of-honor\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.stephaniestaples.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/empty-vessel.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Stephologie\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.stephaniestaples.com\/stephologie\/vessels-of-honor\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.stephaniestaples.com\/stephologie\/vessels-of-honor\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.stephaniestaples.com\/stephologie\/vessels-of-honor\/\",\"name\":\"Vessels of Honor | Stephanie Staples\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.stephaniestaples.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.stephaniestaples.com\/stephologie\/vessels-of-honor\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.stephaniestaples.com\/stephologie\/vessels-of-honor\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.stephaniestaples.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/empty-vessel.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-02-20T16:42:56+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-02-20T16:43:19+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.stephaniestaples.com\/stephologie\/vessels-of-honor\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.stephaniestaples.com\/stephologie\/vessels-of-honor\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.stephaniestaples.com\/stephologie\/vessels-of-honor\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.stephaniestaples.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/empty-vessel.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.stephaniestaples.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/empty-vessel.jpg\",\"width\":2000,\"height\":1333,\"caption\":\"Empty Vessel\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.stephaniestaples.com\/stephologie\/vessels-of-honor\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.stephaniestaples.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Vessels of Honor\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.stephaniestaples.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.stephaniestaples.com\/\",\"name\":\"Stephanie Staples\",\"description\":\"Christian Musician\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.stephaniestaples.com\/#\/schema\/person\/f26435c7916eb55ca7b7b07edd1e09ae\"},\"alternateName\":\"Nashville-Based Christian Singer\/Songwriter\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.stephaniestaples.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":[\"Person\",\"Organization\"],\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.stephaniestaples.com\/#\/schema\/person\/f26435c7916eb55ca7b7b07edd1e09ae\",\"name\":\"Stephanie Staples\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.stephaniestaples.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.stephaniestaples.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/DSC_0148-scaled.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.stephaniestaples.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/DSC_0148-scaled.jpg\",\"width\":1700,\"height\":2560,\"caption\":\"Stephanie Staples\"},\"logo\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.stephaniestaples.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.stephaniestaples.com\/\",\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/stephaniestaplesmusic\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/stephaniestaples\/\",\"http:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/stephaniestaplesmusic\",\"http:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/stephstaples\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/https:\/\/twitter.com\/stephologie\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/stephologietube\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.stephaniestaples.com\/author\/stephaniestaples\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Vessels of Honor | Stephanie Staples","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.stephaniestaples.com\/stephologie\/vessels-of-honor\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Vessels of Honor | Stephanie Staples","og_description":"\u201cYou will never be a fully empty vessel. YOU will always be a part of whatever God does through you.\u201d Someone recently shared these words with me and helped shift my idealistic but not biblical perspective on life and ministry. Trying to completely empty myself had often hindered me from pursuing and enjoying my calling...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.stephaniestaples.com\/stephologie\/vessels-of-honor\/","og_site_name":"Stephanie Staples","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/stephaniestaplesmusic","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/stephaniestaplesmusic","article_published_time":"2023-02-20T16:42:56+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-02-20T16:43:19+00:00","og_image":[{"width":2000,"height":1333,"url":"https:\/\/www.stephaniestaples.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/empty-vessel.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Stephanie Staples","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@https:\/\/twitter.com\/stephologie","twitter_site":"@stephologie","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Stephanie Staples","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.stephaniestaples.com\/stephologie\/vessels-of-honor\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.stephaniestaples.com\/stephologie\/vessels-of-honor\/"},"author":{"name":"Stephanie Staples","@id":"https:\/\/www.stephaniestaples.com\/#\/schema\/person\/f26435c7916eb55ca7b7b07edd1e09ae"},"headline":"Vessels of Honor","datePublished":"2023-02-20T16:42:56+00:00","dateModified":"2023-02-20T16:43:19+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.stephaniestaples.com\/stephologie\/vessels-of-honor\/"},"wordCount":394,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.stephaniestaples.com\/#\/schema\/person\/f26435c7916eb55ca7b7b07edd1e09ae"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.stephaniestaples.com\/stephologie\/vessels-of-honor\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.stephaniestaples.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/empty-vessel.jpg","articleSection":["Stephologie"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.stephaniestaples.com\/stephologie\/vessels-of-honor\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.stephaniestaples.com\/stephologie\/vessels-of-honor\/","url":"https:\/\/www.stephaniestaples.com\/stephologie\/vessels-of-honor\/","name":"Vessels of Honor | Stephanie Staples","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.stephaniestaples.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.stephaniestaples.com\/stephologie\/vessels-of-honor\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.stephaniestaples.com\/stephologie\/vessels-of-honor\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.stephaniestaples.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/empty-vessel.jpg","datePublished":"2023-02-20T16:42:56+00:00","dateModified":"2023-02-20T16:43:19+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.stephaniestaples.com\/stephologie\/vessels-of-honor\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.stephaniestaples.com\/stephologie\/vessels-of-honor\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.stephaniestaples.com\/stephologie\/vessels-of-honor\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.stephaniestaples.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/empty-vessel.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.stephaniestaples.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/empty-vessel.jpg","width":2000,"height":1333,"caption":"Empty Vessel"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.stephaniestaples.com\/stephologie\/vessels-of-honor\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.stephaniestaples.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Vessels of Honor"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.stephaniestaples.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.stephaniestaples.com\/","name":"Stephanie Staples","description":"Christian Musician","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.stephaniestaples.com\/#\/schema\/person\/f26435c7916eb55ca7b7b07edd1e09ae"},"alternateName":"Nashville-Based Christian Singer\/Songwriter","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.stephaniestaples.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":["Person","Organization"],"@id":"https:\/\/www.stephaniestaples.com\/#\/schema\/person\/f26435c7916eb55ca7b7b07edd1e09ae","name":"Stephanie Staples","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.stephaniestaples.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.stephaniestaples.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/DSC_0148-scaled.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.stephaniestaples.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/DSC_0148-scaled.jpg","width":1700,"height":2560,"caption":"Stephanie Staples"},"logo":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.stephaniestaples.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.stephaniestaples.com\/","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/stephaniestaplesmusic","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/stephaniestaples\/","http:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/stephaniestaplesmusic","http:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/stephstaples\/","https:\/\/x.com\/https:\/\/twitter.com\/stephologie","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/stephologietube"],"url":"https:\/\/www.stephaniestaples.com\/author\/stephaniestaples\/"}]}},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stephaniestaples.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11672"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stephaniestaples.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stephaniestaples.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stephaniestaples.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stephaniestaples.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11672"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.stephaniestaples.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11672\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11675,"href":"https:\/\/www.stephaniestaples.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11672\/revisions\/11675"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stephaniestaples.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stephaniestaples.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stephaniestaples.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stephaniestaples.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}