God's Toolbox!

Recently we got involved in a local Church meeting on Thursday evenings to sing and share our testimonies and some Word. They cater mainly to the poor and homeless of a particularly down and out part of Malmö and attract quite a mixed group of people, from ex-druggies, to atheists, to brand new Christians and so on.

As always we started off with some simple songs about trusting the Lord and about His love for us, and it really hit home once again how God’s Spirit can really reach through all the clutter in peoples lives and touch their hearts to just show them the love and understanding that they have so little of in this World. Everybody’s faces lit up with a simple joy that transcends the Earthly and all it’s many and varied troubles. God is GREAT!

The message I shared at the first meeting was one of simplicity, of our nothingness and God’s greatness and how knowing that we are weak can bring us closer to Him and enable Him to work more fully through and in us. You can find the passage I quoted from in 1Corinthians 1:27-29 and I refer to this as “God’s Toolbox”.

Read below and see what God has in His toolbox:
“But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;
And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are:
That no flesh should glory in his presence.”

You are God’s toolbox, and there are certain things that you need to have in that toolbox in order to be used fully by Him. I will list them here as they appear in the passage above:

1.) Foolish things.
2.) Weak things.
3.) Base/lowly things.
4.) Despised/hated things.
5.) Things which are not/non existent things.

Think on these five things that God can use in us for a while and see how it contradicts everything the World says we need in order to be successful.

- The first is “foolish things”, to confound the wise of this World. It is the simplicity of the Gospel that people have the hardest time to accept as they would rather follow after high-minded complicated theories and philosophies than just humble themselves to believe that “For God so loved the World…” (John 3:16), and that “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” (Romans 13:9).

- The second is completely contrary to what is taught at every “recipe for success life skills seminar” that teaches one to be strong, independent and secure in your own abilities. Many teach of the “power that is within” each human and how we can develop that power to become successful. In stark opposition to that God simply tells us to be weak so that He can be strong through us!

- Thirdly the World longs after power, prestige and position while God simply asks that we be “lowly” or humble. He will elevate us if we choose to take His perfect path through life, but if we take the path of pride we are headed towards an uncertain and ultimately unfulfilling and unhappy life.

- Very often as Christians we are in contrast to the people around us by the way we live, the things we say and the moral standpoint we take. Hey, nobody said following Christ was going to be a short and sure route to popularity! It is more likely that folks will hate what you stand for and try to knock you down if they get the chance. When you are in that position, rest assured you are probably doing something right. Of course we should try to “live peaceably with all men” (Acts 25:24), and “have a good report of them which are without” (1Timothy 3:7), so that our lives are a testimony of love and not of judgement, pride and self-righteousness.

- And lastly, non existent things! God doesn’t need you to be a great orator to serve Him. He doesn’t need you to have a doctorate in theology to serve Him. He doesn’t need you to be a “great” person to serve Him. Get rid of all those preconceived ideas and realise that they probably just get in the way of us serving Him unreservedly and effectively. Remember what they said of Peter and John: “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus” (Acts 4:13). The key is simply that they had been with Jesus, not because of anything of their own.

- The point of all of this is summed up in the last sentence: “That no flesh should glory in His presence.” It is God, and not us that should receive honour and glory in all things. Unfortunately that has been the great pride trap for all people since satan told Eve in the Garden of Eden that “you shall be as God” (Genesis 3:5).

Do you want to be a disciple of Jesus, a person who is surrendered to His will and doing what the Father wants of us every day? Then make sure that you are filled with the five tools that God can use in you, His toolbox!