Admittedly, more than once over the past 35 years or so I have found myself asking the Lord, "Why in the world did you choose me for this role (vocational ministry - I have served on the staff of five Baptist churches)?" My dashing good looks? Hardly. My remarkably keen intellect? Duh, no! My oratorical prowess? That ain't it.
I'm sure that the fellows whom Jesus selected to be the Apostles, the foundational stones of the Christian Church, must have asked themselves the same question. Essentially there was nothing about this unlikely bunch which could have been seen as qualifications for such a critical purpose. Truth be known, nothing about any of these men qualified them to be Apostles except God's own sovereign purpose.
On the subject of our qualifications for serving God John MacArthur states, "So there are no intrinsically qualified people. God Himself must save sinners, sanctify them, and then transform them from unqualified into instruments He can use" (from his book Twelve Ordinary Men). You may look upon yourself as being a worthless nobody with nothing to offer the Lord, but worthless nobodies are just the kind of people God uses because that is all He has to work with.
Why does God choose to accomplish His purposes this way? "God chooses the humble, the lowly, the meek, and the weak so that there's never any question about the source of power when their lives changed the world. It's not the man; it's the truth of God and the power of God in the man...The power is in the Word - the truth that we preach - no in us" (MacArthur).
We don't need to think too highly of ourselves, and at the same time we must not underestimate the power of God. The lesson behind today's post is this: Spend time with the Lord, absorb all that He wants to teach you, know the source of your power, and perhaps you will be the kind of nobody God wants to use to fulfill His divine purpose.
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