He Desires to Use You!
James 5:17-18 Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain; and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit.
Can you imagine!? Elijah had the same feelings, insecurities, and fears that we have, yet he could believe God in such an incredible way! Though he understood and experienced the weaknesses of this human flesh, he wasn't limited by them. He knew what he meant to his God and completely believed His promises!
We limit ourselves and judge our ability to be used by Him based on our past mistakes, insecurities, inabilities, failures, and weaknesses. The question is…how does God see you? Let's think about the men God has chosen to use in the Bible. He never called the most likely or qualified! He chose those that would make it perfectly obvious that their achievements had nothing to do with their qualifications.
Paul was on a mission to discredit and destroy the followers of Christ. Could there be a man less likely to serve Him? God shows up amid his sin and rebellion and calls him out for a powerful ministry that would advance the cause of Christianity. God desired a relationship with Him and chose him for His service. The Lord didn't see Paul as he saw himself. As he heard the voice of God and yielded to the call, he became a passionate lover of Jesus and few have had as great an impact on Christianity as he had and is still having.
Wherever you are in this Christian walk, God has a purpose for your life. He is calling you out of the place of mediocrity and bringing you to a wide open place of holiness, purity and an incredible, life changing relationship with your Bridegroom. It's through that process that you'll begin to understand your worth and you'll desire to serve Him in anyway He wants.
Paul was not brought to perfection, but he was brought to holiness and a passionate pursuit of pleasing God. How do I know he was not perfect? The Word of God clearly states there is only one who ever was and that was Jesus Christ. Paul, too, was a man just as we are, a human being with the same types of problems, temptations and insecurities, yet he believed in a big God who could work way beyond his limitations.
God sees you through the eyes of pure love. He doesn't judge you based on past mistakes. No, He is never pleased with sin or our fear and insecurity. He knows what the forces of sin and fear will do in squelching our purpose and relationship with Him. He desires so much more for us…seek Him. Read His Word and see who He says that you are, then step out, fearlessly into all that He's calling you to become. You are the child of the Living God! You are called, desired and loved. Don't let anything keep you from fulfilling your purpose.
Galatians 2:20 (NKJV) I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.
1 Corinthians 1:26-31 (MSG) Take a good look, friends, at who you were when you got called into this life. I don’t see many of “the brightest and the best” among you, not many influential, not many from high-society families. Isn’t it obvious that God deliberately chose men and women that the culture overlooks and exploits and abuses, chose these “nobodies” to expose the hollow pretensions of the “somebodies”? That makes it quite clear that none of you can get by with blowing your own horn before God. Everything that we have—right thinking and right living, a clean slate and a fresh start—comes from God by way of Jesus Christ. That’s why we have the saying, “If you’re going to blow a horn, blow a trumpet for God.”
Psalm 18:19 (NET Bible) He brought me out into a wide open place; He delivered me because He was pleased with me.
Acts 9:20-22 (NLT) And immediately he began preaching about Jesus in the synagogues, saying, “He is indeed the Son of God!” All who heard him were amazed. “Isn’t this the same man who caused such devastation among Jesus’ followers in Jerusalem?” they asked. “And didn’t he come here to arrest them and take them in chains to the leading priests?” Saul’s preaching became more and more powerful, and the Jews in Damascus couldn’t refute his proofs that Jesus was indeed the Messiah.
