God's Choice

Have you ever thought about all the choices God makes or has made. Choices of colors for flowers, grass, weeds, the sky, the ocean, zebras, cobras, giraffes, peacocks, and people. Then there are the choices of when and where to send revival and spiritual awakening. There are the choices to open foreign lands with the gospel. There are choices of whom will sit in leadership and how they be used to accomplish God's purposes of judgement or blessing.

What I am fascinated by today after reading the first chapter of I Corinthians is God's choice to save and to use people in His service. Unlike a business executive trying to build a strong team of associates, God does not choose the wisest, best looking, most experienced, and the most charismatic often. He selects people you and I would look past.

Paul writes it like this. "Brothers, consider your calling: not many are wise from a human perspective, not many powerful, not many of noble birth. Instead, God has chosen what is foolish in the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen what is weak in the world to shame the strong. God has chosen what is insignificant and despised in the world - what is viewed as nothing - to bring to nothing what is viewed as something so that no one can boast in His presence." [I Cor 1:26-29]

God often chooses the average person over the person of exceptional intellect and gifting because He gets the glory for it. I think of the uneducated shoe salesman who became a mighty evangelist in the hands of God named D.L. Moody. I think of the weakness and frailty of Mother Teresa to boldly speak out against abortion at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington many years ago in a room some of the most powerful people in the world. History is filled with the stories of average men and women who yielded their lives to God and were used in extraordinary ways.

From where I am sitting we all look pretty average and ordinary. We serve an extraordinary God. He puts His call on people to do all sorts of things. I am now thinking of a shy high school teacher who surrendered her life to go on a mission trip to Canada first and then a few years later to Africa. She is a bold warrior for Christ but she would consider herself very ordinary.

I do not think this world is going to be changed by the brilliant theologians and most talented preachers. This world will be changed by those ordinary followers of Christ who devote themselves to prayerfully making a difference where they live. Some are teachers, coaches, administrators, and small business owners. Others are mechanics, computer technicians, students, athletes, band members, and in drama. Others stay at home to raise Christ-like children. Through it all God uses each of them as missionaries in their own little corner of the world.

These very ordinary people can be empowered by God to do extraordinary things. I rejoice when I see God working mightily through vessels others would have passed over. God longs to pour His power through people the world considers insignificant. David was passed over for consideration to be King by his own father. Yet God had other plans in mind.

If you feel ordinary and rather average perk up. You are the exact candidates God loves to work through. You are a prime time opportunity for God to use mightily. God's choice is often different than what what the world would choose. God chooses people from all backgrounds, intellects, personalities, and economic status to accomplish His purposes. You just might be God's next choice to join Him on some Kingdom adventure if you have the courage and faith to say, "Yes."