“God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things – and the things that are not – to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before Him.” (1 Corinthians 1:27-29)
I recall sitting through many sermons that have left me feeling totally disqualified from ever serving God. And this was in a Bible college, where I was training to become a minister. Yet preachers kept telling me that I was unfit for Christian service.
In all fairness to these preachers, they were right. I was unfit for Christian service, but a sense of unfitness and inadequacy is almost a prerequisite before God can use us effectively. Look at Paul’s assessment of the Corinthian believers. None of them “were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth” (1 Corinthians 1:26). Paul’s point is that God is in the habit of choosing the least qualified persons through which to do His work. Why? God uses zeroes to do the work of heroes so that He will be glorified through the work He accomplishes through us.
Is God only looking for people with loving hearts to serve Him? Then why did he choose Jonah, who hated the people God called him to evangelize (Jonah 3:5-4:3)? Why did He call James and John – the “sons of thunder” (Mark 3:17) who wanted to call down fire upon people (Luke 9:54)? Perhaps He did so to give us hope for ourselves.
Is God only looking for people of great faith to serve Him? Then He wouldn’t have called any of the apostles. For five times in the Gospel of Matthew Jesus addressed them as “men of little faith” (Matthew 6:30; 8:26; 14:31; 16:8; 17:20). Now, there were people of great faith to choose from (e.g. the Roman centurion, Matthew 8:10, and the Canaanite woman, Matthew 15:28). But Jesus didn’t choose them to be apostles. He chose men of little faith, including the biggest doubter of all – Thomas (John 20:24-29).
Is God only looking for the eloquent, the brave, and the natural leaders? No. For Moses failed to meet any of those criteria. He was neither eloquent (Exodus 4:10-17), nor brave (Exodus 4:3), nor an administrator (Exodus 18:13-27). Yet God made him the greatest leader Israel ever had.
Paul once confessed to being the very worst of sinners – the least fit to serve God (1 Timothy 1:15-16). Yet for this very reason God had chosen him, so that the rest of us might have hope, so that we would know: if God could save Paul, He can save anyone.
REFLECTION
- What defects or omissions do you have that make you unfit to serve God?
- But isn’t God in the business of turning weakness into strength?
- God’s strength is perfected in weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9). Let’s serve Him.
