Sometimes your medicine bottle has on it, ’Shake well before using.’ That is what God has to do with some of His people. He has to shake them well before they are ever usable.

Vance Havner (1901–1986), a widely traveled Southern Baptist evangelist and devotional writer, was known for homely, pointed illustrations drawn from everyday life. This saying reflects his recurring theme that God uses trials, disruptions, and “shakings” to awaken complacent believers and make them spiritually effective. Havner often preached in mid‑20th‑century American revival and conference settings where he urged personal repentance, deeper consecration, and readiness for service. The “medicine bottle” image fits his characteristic style: a simple household object turned into a memorable spiritual lesson about preparation, humility, and usefulness in Christian life.

The metaphor suggests that, like medicine that must be shaken to mix its ingredients, some people require unsettling experiences before their character and priorities are properly “mixed” for faithful service. Havner implies that comfort can allow spiritual sediment—pride, self-reliance, apathy—to settle. God’s “shaking” (hardship, conviction, change, loss, or challenge) is not pointless cruelty but a preparatory act that makes a person effective and beneficial to others. The line also carries a warning: if one resists correction and remains unmoved, one may remain “unusable.” In Havner’s revivalist framework, usefulness is measured by spiritual vitality and obedience rather than status or ease.