Come and see that our purpose as Christians is not about being useful but about being known by God and enjoying him.
We all want to be useful to God, but often we feel that we're not, or, because of illness or other difficulties, that we can't be as active as we'd like to be. Liz Carter wants to rescue us from the spiral of feeling useless that we get caught in, and to show us that being useful isn't what Christianity is about. In fact, the Bible barely talks about God using people at all.
Weaving together insightful scriptural analysis and beautifully told stories, Liz takes us on a journey to see what the Bible really says about weakness, identity, and God's purposes for us: helping us to see ourselves and our relationship with God in an entirely different and much more glorious way. Readers will discover that our purpose as Christians is not about being useful but about being known by God and enjoying him.
This book is particularly helpful for those struggling with long-term physical or mental illness, but it's also a great encouragement to Christians who feel that they are not good enough or useful enough to God for other reasons.
Questions at the end of each chapter make this a helpful resource to read with a friend or in groups.
Introduction
1. We Are the Useless
2. Into the Upside-Down
3. God Is Not a User
4. A Church for Broken People
5. A New Kind of Wholeness
6. A New Hope Story
7. Into an Upside-Down Identity
8. Liberated into Utmost You
Scripture Reflections
| Contributors | Liz Carter, Paul Mallard |
|---|---|
| ISBN | 9781784988890 |
| Format | eBook |
| First published | June 2023 |
| Case quantity | 50 |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | The Good Book Company |
Liz Carter offers a fresh and needed voice. To the one who feels useless, the pages of this book will remind you of where your true worth is found. To the one who’s exhausted from striving, these pages will free you from the tyranny of ‘being enough,’ all while growing in you a greater awareness and compassion for the least of these. A book I definitely needed to read!
Carefully applying Scripture and peppering her writing with personal illustration, Liz Carter challenges the church to reconsider its preoccupation with ‘usefulness’ and helps us grasp our value in the light of God's transforming love in Christ. Valuable is paradigm-shifting—a challenging and freeing approach to our relationship with God.
I’ve used the phrase ‘used by God’ many times, never stopping to interrogate the meaning or connotations. But Valuable has changed that. It exposes Christian culture’s misplaced obsession with usefulness. Utterly convincing in its arguments, it presents an infinitely more wholesome vision of what God has created us to be. As Carter puts it: ‘We are recipients of God’s love, and that love comes through receiving, not through what we do’. What liberating truth!
This book contains much treasure and Godly wisdom needed for this dark modern age we live in.
It is food for the soul and a balm for the anxious mind.
All my life I have lived the ‘useful’ lie – for this, read – good enough, done enough, could have, should have - but didn’t, not as good as …… comparing myself and my family to those ‘shiny, happy’ people Liz speaks of and believing the lie that as a Christian especially, I should be better, more together, and whole than I have been. Lies I have told myself. Lies the world, particularly social media, tells us. But, no more.
Read this book and discover the freedom of life lived in the expanses of God’s redeeming, transforming, outrageous grace, where we are accepted as we are, loved unconditionally and can know joy and peace in the middle of the mess and a broken world.
In Valuable, Liz Carter discusses the problematic language of “usefulness” to God and helps us to explore better ways to convey what we actually mean with that statement.
Why is this a huge deal? Because usefulness often infers the necessity of ability and Liz asks us to think of those who may be less able-bodied or able-minded than others.
Liz also speaks about how much of a challenge this language can be for a new believer that came from an abusive background where being “used” wasn’t something worth celebrating. Think of the confusion it could cause when they hear “God wants to use you.”
I’ll be honest—initially, I thought that it was just semantics, but as I continued reading, Liz helped me to understand why it’s bigger than that. She helped me to see how being “used” speaks more to performance and productivity rather than posture and position. It’s much more works-based than identity-based.
I appreciate Liz’s heart for the subject matter, especially given her own battle with chronic illness. I was an easy read that opened my eyes to a new perspective.
I received a copy of this book for free from The Good Book Company in exchange for this honest review.
It can be really easy to slip into the mindset that we're not really that great... that we're not as useful as others, as clever as others, or just not as good. And yet, God sees us as valuable, as precious, and pours his love out upon us. In this short book, Liz Carter uses scripture and stories to show us that every person is valuable and matters to God, and gives us hope for how we can each grow into a deeper relationship with him.
Valuable by Liz Carter was such an insightful read. This book challenges you to consider the language used by the Church when thinking about value. Carter mentions that she has a chronic illness and that while it may be well meaning when people talk about her ability to still be used by God it can be detrimental instead of uplifting as the person speaking may mean. She is able to share a wealth of examples on this topic and turn to the Bible to lay a Biblical foundation for our identity in Christ and our relationship with God.
This was an easy read and at the end of each chapter there is a prayer and a section with prompts for reflection allowing the reader to dive into the chapter further. Then at the end of the book there is a 7 day reflection guide. I think these reflection sections were helpful and would recommend spending time going through them.
This book is perfect to go through on your own but also would be a great option to go through with a small group.
Valuable by Liz Carter was such an insightful read. This book challenges you to consider the language used by the Church when thinking about value. Carter mentions that she has a chronic illness and that while it may be well meaning when people talk about her ability to still be used by God it can be detrimental instead of uplifting as the person speaking may mean. She is able to share a wealth of examples on this topic and turn to the Bible to lay a Biblical foundation for our identity in Christ and our relationship with God.
This was an easy read and at the end of each chapter there is a prayer and a section with prompts for reflection allowing the reader to dive into the chapter further. Then at the end of the book there is a 7 day reflection guide. I think these reflection sections were helpful and would recommend spending time going through them.
This book is perfect to go through on your own but also would be a great option to go through with a small group.
his lyrical, friendly book unpicks a great big knot of language and misunderstanding at the heart of the Christian approach to disability and suffering. By replacing the language of use with the language of value - and carefully showing through scripture why this makes sense - Liz Carter reminds all of us how much we are loved and valued by God, while at the same time offering immeasurable comfort to those who have been bruised by well-meaning but shallow and inaccurate theology.
Carter lets no challenge go unfaced, sorting through the difference between being useful and being valued; being used and offering to serve; usefulness and dying to self. This book points to a robust theology of suffering and service.
In this book, Liz Carter dismantles harmful or unhelpful ways that people talk about Christian faithfulness and ministry, showing how wrong it is for Christians to relate to God based on metrics of use instead of approaching God as a Father who delights in His children.
Carter writes about this from her perspective as someone who suffers from chronic illness, sharing anecdotes from her life and presenting hypothetical scenarios of ways people can feel marginalized when churches prize external measures of success. She also makes important points about how someone doesn't have to turn their worst traumas into a ministry to show that their suffering has meaning. Carter differentiates true callings from guilty feelings of obligation, and shares passages from Scripture to back up her points about how God relates to people and works in their lives.
Carter also criticizes terminology related to God "using" people, saying that even though people usually mean this in a positive way, the language of "use" can imply control and exploitation, especially for people with abuse histories. She encourages people to use language that implies a partnership, in which God works with us to accomplish good in the world, rather than "using" us like a tool that you can use up and discard. I thought that was very insightful.
This is an excellent book for suffering Christians who feel guilty for not doing enough. It is also an important read for ministry leaders, both as rest for their souls and a careful warning against messages and attitudes they may communicate that may harm vulnerable people. This book is a compelling, short read with a unique message, and I am sure that it will make a lasting impression on many readers.
Note: I received a free copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
Reading this book feels like coming home, not to a place where shame and negative beliefs knock at the door but to a place where we can rest and just be, knowing we are unconditionally loved by God for who we are and not for what we do.
Through her own journey of living with chronic illness and by deftly weaving others vulnerable stories throughout the book, Liz leads us out of the mire of feeling weak and useless, showing us through scripture that our value is in God and not in how useful we are. She teaches us that His greatest desire is for intimacy with us.
Liz lives out what she is offering us here and is honest and authentic in vulnerably sharing her own struggles with feeling useful. This book is so needed and will deeply impact many people’s lives and that’s not something I say lightly!
With reflection questions at the end of each chapter and a study guide at the end of the book this is a great resource for both the individual or a group.
Valuable by Liz Carter
Is a beautiful biblical message about our value in God’s sight.
Liz Carter’s writing is encouraging and humbling, bringing about so many truths of the Bible.
I found this book to be a quick and easy read.
I especially enjoyed the prayer and reflection points at the end of each chapter, as well as the added reflection guide at the end of the book.
A lot of different topics I had never thought about before were brought up in this book, and I found it helpful to hear different scenarios that I may encounter.
‘Valuable’ is a great book to help grow your faith and understanding in God, and how we are used for His glory!
Reading this book has completely changed my view on suffering, I no longer need to suffer cheerfully for God to use me. Her book has also made me think about the way I and others use the language of usefulness. I thought I had to suffer stoically to show that I was peaceful, then God could use my suffering. Now I realise that being honest about things that are hard, but knowing the God who goes with me is a much healthier attitude. our value isn't in how happy we are, how happy we can make others, it's in how busy we are. Our value is in God, his glory is shown regardless of how happy we are, we can be honest with suffering and lament and still show God's love to others. It has also helped me understand how the word ‘use’ was used in the Bible. This isn't just a challenging book in the use of our language and lies we've believed, but it's full of theological insights into the phrases and words so often misunderstood as meaning we should be productive and cheerfully suffer.
This is worth a read if you're a leader of any church group, if you're in pastoral care or if you struggle with feeling like God doesn't use you, or you don't do enough for God, or maybe you do too much and want to get off the treadmill - this book is your permission slip. I can't recommend this book enough!
