Sunday, October 03, 2010

All Glory to God (Gal. 1:18-24)

Then three years later I went up to Jerusalem to become acquainted with Cephas, and stayed with him fifteen days. But I did not see any other of the apostles except James, the Lord's brother. (Now in what I am writing to you, I assure you before God that I am not lying.) Then I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia. I was still unknown by sight to the churches of Judea which were in Christ; but only, they kept hearing, "He who once persecuted us is now preaching the faith which he once tried to destroy." And they were glorifying God because of me.
(Galatians 1:18-24, NASB)

God changes lives. He defeats addictions. He calms anger. He repairs relationships. He takes rebellious, sinful hearts and makes them white as snow.

And He sometimes takes the most defiant against Him or the most ambivalent towards Him or the weakest and makes them His spokespeople.

Moses feared he wouldn’t be able to speak to Pharaoh. Paul actively sought to destroy those who followed Christ, thereby destroying a new religious movement. Corrie Ten Boom was in her sixties, frail from interment in a Nazi death camp.

Yet each of these became a powerhouse in proclaiming God’s truth.

On a quite lesser scale, I was a rebellious, fist-in-the-face-of-God teenager and young adult. I didn’t want to have anything to do with faith. Then I recommitted my life to the Lord, and all I wanted to do was know Him better and serve where He wanted me.

I never expected He’d use me to speak or write. I felt unworthy to do either. Yet, God, in His mercy and grace, chose to give me the privilege of telling His stories.

You may think your choices have somehow made you inadequate to be used by God in a significant way. But that’s one of the great things about our God. He’ll use the most broken vessel to do His will.

It doesn’t matter what you’ve done or where you’ve been. If you surrender your life to Him, willing to do whatever He asks, He will use you. You may be a Moses or a Paul. Or you may be the only Jesus your neighbors, friends, and coworkers see. In either case, others will be pointed to Christ through you.

And God will receive all the glory.

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