For
consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the
flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; but God has chosen the foolish things
of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world
to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the
despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the
things that are, so that no man may boast before God. (1 Corinthians 1:26-29)
"It is not our littleness that hinders Christ; but our bigness. It is not our weakness that hinders Christ; it is our strength. It is not our darkness that hinders Christ; it is our supposed light that holds back His hand." Charles H. Spurgeon
Surprisingly, we Christians
sometime develop the wrong idea about who needs what. Don’t misunderstand. Certainly, we should obey God’s commands, we
ought to take seriously the work God has given us to take the gospel to all
people, everywhere, and surely we ought to be involved in doing good in this
world so full of things that are bad. We
ought to make a positive difference.
The trouble is that we
sometimes get the idea that God can’t get along very well without us. We develop the attitude that it is through
our strength, our ingenuity, our talents and effort that great things are done. Actually, while we should offer Him all of
these, our offering is really pretty puny.
Charles Spurgeon understood
something about God’s greatness. It
works best when we don’t hamper it by getting our puny little selves in God’s
way. In fact, we end up accomplishing
more and better things when we allow God to work in and through us.
When you think about all the
great things that God has done throughout man’s history, you’ve got to be
impressed with how He used the least expected resources. Take the nation of Israel. Compared to other nations, it never was
really much at all, yet God used Israel to bring the Messiah into the world.
Getting more specific, who
would have picked an isolated shepherd, keeping a flock out in the middle of
nowhere, to be the guy to lead God’s people out of Egypt? Yet that’s exactly what Moses was at the time
he was called. King David was just a
young man, probably rather small, yet he took on the giant Goliath when
Israel’s army shook in fear of him. And,
who really, expected a handful of Galileans–former tax collectors,
ex-revolutionaries, and fishermen–to change the world? No, you just have to stand back and be amazed
at how God has chosen to do things. He
picks the weaknesses in humans and turns those weaknesses into great
accomplishments, all to display His own power and might.
The question for us, though,
is how to get out of God’s way. It’s not
always clear. God certainly can and will
use us for His purposes. What isn’t so
clear is when we are effective tools and when we are a hindrance to what God
wants to do. Perhaps the answer is to
keep recognizing that it doesn’t depend on us.
Maybe the concern is one of our faith in God. When we realize that it’s not our strength
that matters, but God’s, then we’re ready to become as useful as possible in
God’s hands. It doesn’t mean we should
sit down and refuse to act. It means
that we act with the knowledge that God will use us.
That, by the way, is really
the only way you’ll ever take on things that look bigger than you, and sooner
or later, you’ll run into a few of those.
When you do, let God make you strong.
Scripture
to Claim:"And He has said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.’ Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong." 2 Corinthians 12:9-10
