Green Pastures
Weekly Devotional

Not Qualified

 

Have you ever been asked to do a job in Kingdom work but you said no because you didn’t feel you were good enough?  Maybe you were not educated enough – no great degrees in religious studies?  Or you thought you were too young to be taken seriously, or your family background was “iffy”,  or… lots of reason why people say no. Feeling inadequate is one that tops the list.

 

Take a minute or two to take stock of some of the people in scripture who were likely not considered leadership material or of much use for any kind of ministry  in the eyes of others, but who were used mightily by God to fulfil His purpose.

 

Noah, who trusted God so completely that when he was told to build a boat – he did!  It had never rained and I’m sure he raised the eyebrows of everyone for miles around.  He wasn’t a great politician, nor anyone of renown, except in the eyes of the Lord. We don’t know whether or not he even knew how to build boats – why would he? There had been no need. But Noah had the faith to obey God and through him, God preserved the human race and the earth on which they lived.

 

David was a very young man, the youngest in his family and had nothing to his bragging rights, except he was able to take care of sheep. Yet he became the most famous king of all time, first the king of the southern nation of Judah, then of the unified kingdom. He fell into moral failure – but God still used him.

 

Moses – a little boy, the son of ordinary Jewish parents, fished out of the river and although he was raised in royalty, God appointed him to be the leader of the nation of Jews, eventually delivering them from slavery and leading the multitudes across the wilderness for 40 years into the land God had promised them. Not a job for wimps! Moses did not feel qualified to stand before Pharoah. He put up excuses but in the end it did not stop him from doing what God desired of him.

 

Rahab – a very unlikely candidate for doing the Lord’s work. She was a prostitute, but she helped save the Hebrew spies when they were scouting the city of Jericho. When that city was destroyed, she and her family were spared and she stayed with the Israelites, believed in the one, true God and ended up on the who’s who list  - the genealogy of Jesus.

 

Gideon   Gideon's main problem was fear of not being good enough to do what the Lord wanted him to do. God told Gideon that He wanted to save the people of Israel from the Midianites and wanted Gideon to spearhead the attack and lead God’s people to victory. But because of his fear, Gideon needed miraculous signs before he finally give in to God, but only after  putting a protest before the Lord. “And he (Gideon) said to him (God). ‘ please Lord, how could I save Israel? Behold, my clan is the weakest in Menassa and I am the least in my father’s house.”  (Judges 6:15)  Gideon was not qualified to lead such an attack against the enemy. But the Lord’s plan prevailed and the enemy was conquered.

 

There were more Old Testament characters, too numerous to relate here.

 

Then we read in the New Testament about how Jesus used ordinary, uneducated men who stank like fish. Not exactly who you or I would have thought worthy of their appointed tasks as spreaders of the gospel. They witnessed the life, death and resurrection of Christ, preached the gospel wherever they went and became the foundation of the Christian church – even though they had no qualifications.

 

Scripture is filled with the stories of people who, though in human terms were not qualified to be kings and leaders, did amazing things because God knew their potential to fulfill the purpose He had in mind for each to help build God’s Kingdom.

God’s choices show us that His grace and power can work through anyone, regardless of their background or past mistakes. Each story proves that God doesn’t call the qualified; He qualifies the called. I am convinced that God often uses unlikely people to do His work because there's no way they can boast before him. He gets all the glory. God does not call us to do that which we can do on our own. God calls everyone single one of us to do that which can only be accomplished in His power.

 

I came across this quote recently:   “God found Gideon in a hole, Joseph in a prison, Daniel in a Lion's den. The next time you feel unqualified to be used by God, remember: He tends to recruit from the pit, not the pedestal.”

When God calls you to a task, don’t say “no” because you think you are not qualified.  If He calls, He equips.

 

 

B. Klassen               beatrice.klassen@outlook.com