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God uses ordinary people in exordinary ways for His glory.<\/p>\n
At first it may seem that that statement isn\u2019t quite right and you may not believe it. After all aren\u2019t only \u201csuper Christians\u201d used by God?\u201d You may be thinking, \u201cI\u2019m just a lay person what can God do with you?\u201d Rather than thinking in terms of whether or not you have a seminary degree or extensive ministry experience I want you to go back to the Gospels. Remember the Apostles were uneducated and had no formal theological training before they met Jesus. They walked with Jesus for three years day and night, watching Him perform miracles and hearing Him teach them personally and as He taught others. Do you think that this Jesus the One who called men to follow Him is concerned about titles after one\u2019s name? Don\u2019t get me wrong earning degrees are great, but earning degrees is not ultimate unless they are yielded in submission to King Jesus and used for His glory. God took a shepherd boy and made Him King of Israel. God used a donkey after all to deliver a message. God uses ordinary people in extraordinary ways.<\/p>\n
This is exactly what Satan wants you to think. You may think, \u201cI\u2019m totally unworthy to be used by God.\u201d If people only knew, you say how much of a miserable sinner I am they wouldn\u2019t want to hear from me at all. Hogwash! All of us are miserable sinners. Unless you\u2019ve acknowledged your unworthiness you are not ready to be used by God. The fact that you think that you are \u201ctotally unworthy\u201d tells me that you are in fact ready to be used by God. I say this of course because mentioning \u201cyou are totally unworthy\u201d tells me that you align yourself with Isaiah who humbled himself before the glory of God in Isaiah 6. Isaiah acknowledged he was a man of unclean lips. You are a sinner in need of God\u2019s grace so the fact you acknowledge that shows me you are ready to testify of His grace at work in and through your life.<\/p>\n
Look at the Apostle Peter. Jesus told Peter that he would deny Him three times (Matthew 26:34). Peter’s response was he would not deny Jesus (Matthew 26:35). Here\u2019s the thing, Peter did deny Jesus three times and Jesus saw it (Matthew 26:69-75). Imagine that you are the Apostle Peter the leader of the Apostles and a member of the inner circle of the Son of God Jesus Christ and you deny him three times. You would feel devastated, shame and guilt ridden. You say, \u201cI\u2019m such a failure that God can never use you\u201d but that isn\u2019t true. God uses our failure, hardship and trials for His glory. He turns what was meant for bad and uses it to testify to His grace. You say that you are a failure and yet God says because of the finished work of Christ you are victorious. The Apostle Peter went on to be mightily used of God because He was broken by God. You may be broken right now but in due season God will build you up and use you for His glory. Don\u2019t run from Him run to Jesus. God uses ordinary people for His glory.<\/p>\n
Look at the Apostle Paul. Paul was one of the most educated men of his day and yet God brought him low in Acts 9. God opened his eyes to the beauty and glory of Jesus. Once Paul knew Jesus all of his education, gifts and talents were directed towards the Gospel.\u00a0 The Lord uses those humbled by a vision of His greatness and glory to testify to the proud and religious of the splendor of His glory. The Lord humbled the Apostle Paul and used him mightily to plant churches, preach the Gospel, write 13 epistles and so much more. God can use educated people for His glory but He often humbles them of their pride so they will rely on Him.<\/p>\n
Think of your favorite biblical character or person from church history. Before they were \u201cwell-known\u201d they were unknown. The Lord takes nobodies and makes them somebody all by His grace. At the start of my ministry I experienced a great deal of success. That success got to my head and rather than directing it towards God and giving Him glory, I let it go to my head. Several years later the Lord shows me my pride and arrogance about this and I repented. He showed me in reading His Word that He used those who were broken and humble rather than those who were haughty. He showed me from His Word that He cares about holiness and growth in His grace. You may think you are the biggest thing to hit the Christian scene but if you think that you are not interested in serving others or glorifying God. Ministry is about serving others and making much of God.<\/p>\n
You may not have many gifts, talents or abilities but every single Christian can be mightily used of God. Charles Spurgeon was converted to Gospel under the preaching a lay preacher. Martin Luther was convicted of his sin and came to saving faith after studying the books of Psalms and Romans. Your story may be completely different than that, but whatever gift, talent, or ability God has given you\u2014use it for His glory. Whatever influence whether great or small use it for His glory. God may not give you a great deal of influence and that is okay. Focus not on the breadth of your ministry but on the depth of your ministry from God’s Word. Remember, it is not the most able who are blessed in their ministry it is the most holy.<\/p>\n
God uses ordinary people in extraordinary ways for His glory. God used a lawyer in high school to disciple me to grow in His grace. He\u2019s also used many \u201cordinary\u201d people with no Bible college or seminary education to disciple me. God uses ordinary people in extraordinary ways as a testimony for His grace and glory. So, the next time you feel you are a failure, that your sin disqualifies you from service or you are better than someone\u2014remember the Gospel. The Gospel that saved you, is sanctifying you and will one day glorify you is the power of God. God uses all sorts of people with all sorts of gifts, talents and abilities as a testimony of His grace that His name would be made famous among the nations.\u00a0 God uses ordinary people in extraordinary ways to advance His Gospel.<\/p>\n
If you are hungering for more of God, and desire to be used by Him then use whatever gifts, talents and abilities you have and direct them in the right direction towards God, motivated by a desire for His glory by using your God-given gifts and talents in the local Church and beyond to edify God\u2019s people and expand the Kingdom of God. Then you will join the multitude of ordinary saints before you who became extraordinary because they served a God who is glorified not by self-serving people but people who are humbled by His grace and holy before Him. As Robert Murray McCheyne once said, \u201cA\u00a0holy<\/b><\/em>\u00a0minister is an\u00a0awful weapon<\/b><\/em>\u00a0in the hand of\u00a0God<\/b><\/em>.” In other words, if we are constantly making our own spiritual progress, advancing in Christ-likeness, growing in grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ (2 Peter 3:18), we will find to whatever degree God has determined, His blessing will follow in our wake. Entrust whatever ministry and whatever gifts you have to God, and use them in His power energized by His Spirit for His glory. Watch as God grows you in His grace and uses you in extraordinary ways in the lives of His people for His glory.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" God uses ordinary people in exordinary ways for His glory. At first it may seem that that statement isn\u2019t quite right and you may not believe it. After all aren\u2019t only \u201csuper Christians\u201d used by God?\u201d You may be thinking, \u201cI\u2019m just a lay person what can God do with you?\u201d Rather than thinking in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":6173,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-misc","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.blueletterbible.org\/blb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6128","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.blueletterbible.org\/blb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.blueletterbible.org\/blb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.blueletterbible.org\/blb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.blueletterbible.org\/blb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6128"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.blueletterbible.org\/blb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6128\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6172,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.blueletterbible.org\/blb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6128\/revisions\/6172"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.blueletterbible.org\/blb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.blueletterbible.org\/blb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.blueletterbible.org\/blb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.blueletterbible.org\/blb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}