Spiritual Strength in Christ

I remember the day I learned my pastor was leaving our church. Standing at the stove, cooking dinner, I heard my phone buzzing, informing me of an incoming text message. A friend sent me the news that our pastor had resigned. I couldn’t see the pot I was stirring for the tears running down my face. This news was sudden and unexpected. 

After that, our church went into survival mode. Everyone pitched in to help keep our church functioning as we searched for a new pastor. Not only was there a hole left by my pastor, but his wife left a hole as well. She had led our ladies Tuesday morning Bible study. With her gone, I worried what would happen to that group. I loved those ladies and enjoyed studying the Word with them each week.

As I wondered what would happen, the Spirit began prompting me to lead the Bible study. Me? I had a Moses-like moment as I reminded God that I am quiet, shy, and don’t have the gift of teaching. Why would He call me to teach a Bible study? What about the people He had gifted to teach, couldn’t He ask them instead?

As it turns out, I did end up taking over the Bible study and still lead it today. God has taught me a few lessons since then about the way He works. Scripture refers to believers as “jars of clay” holding the gospel, a treasure to be shared among the nations. A breakable jar of clay is not a vessel in which most of us would place our treasures. But as I have learned, God likes to do what is unexpected.

He took Moses, weak in speech and made him the leader of the Israelites, freeing them from slavery and captivity. He took the prostitute Rahab and used her in the most unlikely way to gain victory over Jericho. He took David, the least of all his brothers, and made him King of Israel. He took Mary, humble, young, and poor and used her to carry and raise His one and only Son. He took Peter, the one who always said and did the wrong thing, and made him the founder of the Christian church.

Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 12 that he boasted in his weaknesses because God revealed his power through them. That’s what God does with us. He uses our weaknesses, our inadequacies, our inabilities, and works in and through us to do amazing things for His Kingdom and for His glory. He uses us in spite of our weaknesses and enables us to do more than we could ever imagine.

Is there anything in your life that you believe God is calling you to but you think you are ill-equipped? I challenge you to consider these lessons I’ve learned through my own hesitations and the way God worked through me in spite of my weaknesses:

1.  Don’t think that because you are weak or not gifted in a certain area that God cannot use you. He can and He will. God prefers to use those who are weak, those we wouldn’t expect, and those who are wounded and broken. (Moses was a murderer on the run from Egypt and not a public speaker but God used him to save the Israelites!) It makes the gospel message that much more powerful when it is shared through our weaknesses. (2 Corinthians 12: 9-10).

2.  If He calls you to a task, He will enable you to complete it. If He calls you to lead a women’s ministry, He will make you able to lead that ministry. If He calls you to share your faith with someone, He will give you the words to say. If He calls you to write Sunday school curriculum and you’ve never even taught in a classroom, He will give you the wisdom and ability to do it. 

3.  God is bigger than our greatest weakness. This is a truth I have to tell myself every day. Whenever I feel weak or insignificant and wonder why He led me down this path, I remember how big God is. He created the entire universe and holds the world in His hands. There is nothing too big for Him and nothing He cannot do. 

I challenge you today to be open to the Spirit’s prompting. Walk by faith and not by sight on the path He has called you to. Know that He is faithful to complete what He began in you. No matter your weaknesses, He will use you to build and spread His kingdom.

“I can do all things through him who strengthens me.” ~ Philippians 4:13

~ By Christina Fox