"God calls the unqualified. For example: Noah was a drunk, Abraham was too old, Jacob was a liar, Leah was ugly, Joseph was abused, Moses was a stuttering criminal, Samson was promiscuous, Gideon was doubtful, Rahab was a prostitute, Jeremiah was depressed, David had an affair and committed murder to cover it up, Elijah was mentally unbalanced and suicidal, Isaiah preached naked, When God called Jonah; Jonah ran away, Naomi was an old widow, Job went bankrupt, Peter betrayed Jesus, The Disciples fell asleep, Martha was a worrier, The Samaritan woman was a multiple divorcee, Zacchaeus was greedy, Paul was engrained in another religion, Timothy was too young and had ulcers, and Lazarus was dead..."
I often times think about the time in my life that I felt God's call on my life. It is usually times when I am in the valley and I am trying to desperately grasp for the reason I am there in the first place. I cry out to God and I give Him every reason and excuse that I can come up with why I shouldn't or can't do what He is asking me to do. For example: "I can't talk to them, they might make fun of me, I can't go there because I have a job here, I can't say that I might lose my job, I don't want to do that because it makes me uncomfortable." Or I simply list all the reasons that my failings will prevent me from doing what He wants, such as, "I am a liar, I am a cheat, I am divorced, I can't speak well, I am not educated enough, I am not wise enough, etc, etc."
As you read the list above you will be reminded that God doesn't call the "perfect" people. He calls the ones that are broken, the least in the eyes of the world. He prefers to use those "special" people to carry His word. In Noah, he used a man that eventually would end up drunk and naked in a cave to save the human race from total and entire destruction. Abraham was an old man married to an old woman that could never have children yet God promised him that his lineage would out number the stars. Jacob was a man full of pride, wanted to be first so bad he mislead his blind father to gain the birthright that wasn't his in the first place. Joseph was an abused little brother that was sold into slavery and forgotten about except by God who elevated him and blessed his hands, Moses was born a Hebrew but raised an Egyptian that would later kill another Egyptian and flee in shame and fear; a stuttering man that couldn't speak in public but God used him to accomplish his purposes. King David, the man that slew a giant, couldn't control his impulses and slept with a married woman then to cover up his sin he had the husband of the woman killed. Fast forward a bit and we see Peter deny the man that he had followed for several years and a man that had taught him what he would never been able to learn on his own. Yet God still had a plan for Peter. And my favorite of the whole list above, Paul. Paul was a man called Saul, a man that was so intertwined in the Jewish religion and had such zeal for the legalistic side of the Jewish faith that he openly and at times violently persecuted Christ's own people. And yet even he was to be used by God to spread the word to people outside of the Jewish faith and to the rest of the known world. It is for his sake that we have knowledge of Jesus Christ.
So the next time God asks you to do something, if you feel fear creeping up, remember the ones that God called before you. The unqualified men and women that are all throughout His word. None of us are perfect people and thank God that He doesn't expect perfection. He simply expects obedience.
I often times think about the time in my life that I felt God's call on my life. It is usually times when I am in the valley and I am trying to desperately grasp for the reason I am there in the first place. I cry out to God and I give Him every reason and excuse that I can come up with why I shouldn't or can't do what He is asking me to do. For example: "I can't talk to them, they might make fun of me, I can't go there because I have a job here, I can't say that I might lose my job, I don't want to do that because it makes me uncomfortable." Or I simply list all the reasons that my failings will prevent me from doing what He wants, such as, "I am a liar, I am a cheat, I am divorced, I can't speak well, I am not educated enough, I am not wise enough, etc, etc."
As you read the list above you will be reminded that God doesn't call the "perfect" people. He calls the ones that are broken, the least in the eyes of the world. He prefers to use those "special" people to carry His word. In Noah, he used a man that eventually would end up drunk and naked in a cave to save the human race from total and entire destruction. Abraham was an old man married to an old woman that could never have children yet God promised him that his lineage would out number the stars. Jacob was a man full of pride, wanted to be first so bad he mislead his blind father to gain the birthright that wasn't his in the first place. Joseph was an abused little brother that was sold into slavery and forgotten about except by God who elevated him and blessed his hands, Moses was born a Hebrew but raised an Egyptian that would later kill another Egyptian and flee in shame and fear; a stuttering man that couldn't speak in public but God used him to accomplish his purposes. King David, the man that slew a giant, couldn't control his impulses and slept with a married woman then to cover up his sin he had the husband of the woman killed. Fast forward a bit and we see Peter deny the man that he had followed for several years and a man that had taught him what he would never been able to learn on his own. Yet God still had a plan for Peter. And my favorite of the whole list above, Paul. Paul was a man called Saul, a man that was so intertwined in the Jewish religion and had such zeal for the legalistic side of the Jewish faith that he openly and at times violently persecuted Christ's own people. And yet even he was to be used by God to spread the word to people outside of the Jewish faith and to the rest of the known world. It is for his sake that we have knowledge of Jesus Christ.
So the next time God asks you to do something, if you feel fear creeping up, remember the ones that God called before you. The unqualified men and women that are all throughout His word. None of us are perfect people and thank God that He doesn't expect perfection. He simply expects obedience.
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