Verify Podcast

Have you met someone who is so weighed down by their flaws and inadequacies that they feel disqualified? Someone whose past is stopping them from pursuing a more intimate relationship with God? Have you met someone like that? Or is that someone, you?

Many times in the bible, those were just the kinds of people God used for spectacular things. The weak, the despised, the least likely; those were the ones He used to carry out his plans. Gideon was fearful and insecure, the smallest in his family, yet the Angel of the Lord called him a mighty man of valour and he was chosen to judge Israel (Judges 6:12-15). Moses was a stammerer and didn’t have much confidence in himself, but God appointed him to deliver a nation (Exodus 3:10-11&4:10). David was the last born of his father’s sons, yet it was he, who was chosen to be king (1 Sam 16:11). It wasn’t a coincidence that God sometimes by- passed first borns and used people like Jacob (Rom 9:12). Imagine the shame that came with the prolonged barrenness of Hannah and Elizabeth, yet He brought great prophets out of their barren wombs.

Even when the person’s sin was the problem, it didn’t stop God from using those who encountered and yielded to him. Look at Apostle Paul, who viciously opposed Christians (Acts 26:10), yet God used him to write several books of the bible. See the woman at the well. Her private life was in disarray, yet Christ used her to draw many to Himself (John 4:39). Rahab was a prostitute and Ruth was initially an idol worshipper. Ordinarily, they shouldn’t measure up, but these women yielded to God and He put them among the ancestors of the Messiah (Matthew 1:5).

Even today, among the flawed, that’s you and I, God looks for yielded hearts to use. How do I know this? Hebrews 12:1 encourages the believer to strip off every weight that slows us down, and run the race God has set before us. So you and I may not look like the perfect candidates because of where we’re coming from, but thank God for 2 Cor 12:9 which says that His power is made perfect in weakness. We are not disqualified because God sees us beyond our deficiencies, and is willing to work with us, regardless, if we are willing to submit to Him.

May yesterday’s mistakes, weaknesses and inadequacies, never stop us from pressing in to be all that God has called us to be, in Jesus name we pray, Amen.