Beloved: grace and peace to you from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord. I gladly welcome you to another week of the month of March 2023. My prayer is that God will always find you useful in communicating His goodness to those in your world, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
God, as we see in the bible, is always looking for those that He can use to communicate His will and His goodness to humanity. And all He requires are those who will make themselves available to Him wholeheartedly. Then, even if they do not have any special ability that could make them outstanding among men, He will equip them with all that they need to serve His purpose. And if they will go on like that to faithfully serve Him, their names may end up being known all over the world.
What special abilities did people like Peter, James and John have to become men that God used in making His glory known all over the world? None that we are aware of! The bible indeed speaks of men like Joseph, Solomon and Daniel who were exceptional in wisdom, knowledge and understanding. But the men who were first called by the Lord to be His apostles in taking the good news of God’s grace all around the world are not described in the bible as exceptional in any way. On the contrary, we are told in the bible that most of them were unschooled. Yet God used them to do fantastic things, things too much for the wisdom of the world to grasp.
Why, then, did God pick such men to use? The bible says it is so that no one would be able to boast that it’s because of certain abilities that he possesses that God is using him. God is able to use anyone, regardless of their abilities or inadequacies. In fact, the bible says God is able to use foolish people to shame wise people and people that are considered to be nothing to shame very important people. (Cf. 1Cor 1:26-29)
Now what does God need to use such people? First, He needs them to be available to Him. Being available to God in this manner, of course, goes beyond being present where He is. It also involves showing that you are present where you are for Him. Someone can be present somewhere and still not be available to help or serve anyone. So, if you want God to use you, in spite of what you have or do not have, always show yourself as someone that is available for Him to use. (Cf. Isaiah 6:1-8)
Second, God needs those that He will use to willingly yield themselves to Him (Rom 12:1; James 4:7). That means they have to submit to Him to do things the way He wants them done and not according to their own desire. It follows, then, that anyone that is not ready to submit to God and do things His way cannot be used by Him to accomplish His good purpose, even if the person is available.
Third, God needs such people to be ready to purify themselves. God is not just after what we can do for Him but also after the heart with which we do it. The kind of heart with which we do His work will either make it effective in accomplishing His purpose or corrupt His work. So, we must be ready to let Him purify us of anything that could contaminate His work through us and make it unprofitable. Anyone, then, who is opposed to words of rebuke, correction or discipline is not a fit candidate for His work, however gifted he may be. (Cf. 2Timothy 2:20-21)
Well, the apostles of old met those requirements, even though they were not educated, influential or wealthy people at the time they were called by the Lord. They all made themselves available to be used by the Lord, yielded themselves to serve Him as He pleased and also surrendered themselves to be washed and made clean by Him. So, He took them, build them up and used them in ways nobody ever thought was possible. And if we too want to be used by Him in like manner, all we need is to do as they did.
Have a very pleasant week.
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