Some light reading

A couple of days ago I was reading from “My Utmost for His Highest”. (August 4th, if you are interested) It is talking about Jesus choosing his apostles. One sentence jumped out at me. “As long as you think that you are of value to Him He can not choose you, because you have purposes of your own to serve.”

We all talk about the characteristics of God. He is forever, everywhere, always right. There are big religious words for these, but I can’t spell them. Basically God is all powerful and we are nothing. There was a second sentence that stood out. “We tend to say that because a person has natural ability, he will make a good Christian.” This sentence sounds correct also. We need people who can do things in the ministry. We need people who can help the sick and poor. We need people who can teach. We need people who can spread the Good News.

What happens when you put these two sentences together? I just couldn't get them to fit. We need people who can accomplish things in the ministry. If we don’t do anything we would be a club. We would meet, but never do anything. The first sentence says if you are of any value God can’t use you.

About the second day after I had first read this the answer came to me. Read the first part of the first sentence again. “As long as YOU think that you are of value…” How often to we (I) think, “I have the abilities to handle this task.” God is going to choose me because I have studied and prepared myself. I can do it. I am ready. I have shown what I can do. I am just sitting here waiting for God to use me.

This sounds funny when I read it, but how often do we think this way?

So we have an almost impossible task of doing things in the world, but we can never think WE are doing to. Our natural ability came from God. We need to do our best in the situations God puts us in.