Do not let your heart envy sinners, But live in the fear of the Lord always” (Proverbs 23:17)
Okay, I admit it. I know I am not supposed to ‘envy’ people who have wonderful talents and can do all those things that I would like to be able to do, but I do! I would dearly love to be able to paint a beautiful picture or play an instrument, or be a great orator but God choose not to give me those talents.
But as I have grown more mature (a nice way of saying I am getting as old as dirt) Paul’s message that we each have very special talents has impacted my thinking. However, it is how committed we are to using those special talents for the building of the Kingdom of God that determines the crowns that will be ours on judgment day!
Have you ever noticed that when God looks for something for His service, He usually looks for something common! Something that we all would understand! He prefers to hone His own edge out of rough metal. An old country preacher put it this way, “When He really needs something done, He looks for a broken vessel and smashes it, and then remolds it into the image of His Son.”
I believe most scholars would agree that Paul was a rough sort of dude. He was as anti ‘The Way’ as one could get; a Pharisee, a persecutor of God’s people, but, one day on the Damascus Road God looked down and said, “I’ll take that one!”, and molded him into His image!.
When God chose the person who would introduce Jesus to the world, he chose a wild sort of prophet, the eater of locust and wild honey. Yet Jesus said, “Among those born of women there is no one greater than John”. (Matthew 11:11)
Sooooo, if God can use a murderer (Moses) who had just spent forty years being honed into a sharp edge to lead his people from the bondage of Egypt, why not you or me? Will you be that person who, when God asks, “Who can I send?” respond, “Here, send me.”
Blessings,
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