Ever felt insignificant, undervalued, unimportant?
I’m guessing the answer is probably yes. Then you are just the kind of person God can use. God has an incredible knack of taking the seemingly insignificant and using them in a significant way. Whether that be a person or a place.
To be used by God takes many things but certain characteristics stand out more clearly than others – availability and surrender. However we view ourselves, if we make ourselves available to God and surrender to His will, then there are endless ways in which God might choose to use us.
One of my favourite carols is ‘O Little Town of Bethlehem’. Described as a small, insignificant town, the prophet foretold how God would bring forth a ruler over Israel. You can read about it in Micah 5. While people went about their normal, daily routine, a Saviour was being born. It was unlikely. It could have been overlooked. It wasn’t the expected route but God made a significant move nonetheless. He is still using the same method today. Behind the scenes, while we go about the day to day gubbins of our lives, God is engineering some significant moments for our future.
As we start a new year, don’t look down. Don’t dwell on the things that you don’t have. Dwell on the things that you do have in Christ. Though you may feel insignificant in the eyes of man, don’t live within that perspective. Lift up your eyes. Know that to God you are significant. After all ‘the hopes and fears of all the years’ all started in Bethlehem. That precious birth, which saw the living of a one-of-a-kind life, which led to a torturous death, which led to a powerful resurrection, which led to you and I having a Saviour.
Plus we need to remember, significance is all relative. Do not underestimate the power of a small act of kindness, a smile, an arm around a shoulder, a quick phone call, a small hamper of food, whatever you can do. To you it seems like nothing but to those who receive it…that act is the most significant thing you could have ever done. Just stay available and have a willingness to surrender to His will.
‘But God chooses what the world considers foolish to shame the wise. God chose what the world considers weak to shame the strong. And God chose what the world considers low-class and low-life, what is considered to be nothing, to reduce what is considered something to nothing’ [1 Corinthians 1:27-28 CEB]
Praying and believing for 2012 to be a year that God uses us in significant ways – as individuals and as a body of believers.
xcelchurchlife 