If He can use anything…
God uses the weak.
Don’t miss what He’s doing.
Imagine this.
You are a newly elected King. You look the part. The people love you. The expectations are high. You’ve won a couple of battles and now have some experience in this position. But you’ve found yourself in a battle and the other team has a superweapon. Not only are they a bigger army, they have a guy named Goliath who is a literal giant. You were elected cause you looked the part. You were elected because the people thought you looked like the type of leader they needed. You were literally elected because you passed the eye test. But now it’s almost like someone is calling you out. Someone who is better suited in the things you were praised for. Someone who has been at this longer. Someone who is decked out in the gear. The average height for the time was about 5’6 and you were documented to be head and shoulders taller than your people, but now this guy is 9 feet (Basketball goals are 10ft)… significantly taller than you. Significantly more experienced than you. Significantly better prepared than you. You were elected because you looked the part. But he looks more the part. Your persona was built on the external image and his is real. He makes your outward accolades look like a joke. And to make things worse, this guy has been taunting you and your army for 40 days non-stop. He says that if someone will come and fight him yall can end this tirade. You put the memo out, you offer your daughter’s hand in marriage and tax exemption for the entire family of the man who steps up to the plate. You are desperate for help. You can't win this on your own. No one steps up for 40 days and it's looking worse and worse each day.
Yet, when someone finally does step up, you don’t think they’re good enough. You tell them that they aren’t qualified to fight and try to deter them from the job.
Now we know the rest of this story and we usually view it from the perspective of David, but I think a lot of times we may act more like Saul. We get hired based on our outward appearance, and performance. We distance ourselves from others with education and networking solidifying our spot amongst the elite. We build a persona and reputation that's bigger than what we can really hold up for ourselves. We climb ranks with persona and personality, but when situations come that are playing our game bigger and better than we could play it, we cower in fear... What may be even crazier is that I don’t think it was originally even Davids’s job to fight Goliath. What do I mean by that? At the beginning of the story of Saul, Samuel is told to anoint Saul to be king and that he will be the one to defeat the Philistines. Look it up. 9th chapter of 1 Samuel. So why did David go fight Goliath? Cause he was one of the only people in this entire story of like 8 chapters who wasn’t letting the outward appearance of things get into the way of what he was called to do!!! The children of Israel wanted Saul to be their king cause they saw how other countries looked and wanted to be like them. Saul and the Israelites were shook when they saw Goliath and heard what he was saying. God even had to remind Samuel to stop focusing on how things looked on the outside because he had trouble picking who to anoint as the new king when he saw how David’s brothers looked. Saul was actually called to protect the people from the Philistines. You can see it yourself a couple of chapters before this. But now he’s letting what he sees get in the way of what he’s called to do.
We are too focused on the outward appearance of things. We sometimes feel like frauds. God may have called us but we don’t think we are good enough to fight so ask for help. We beg for a way out and ask if anyone or anything thing will be able to help us out and do the job for us but what might be even crazier when that opportunity arises we still have a superficial mindset and are too bougie to recognize the gifts God may be giving us, looking down on them because of how they look or the package they may come in. Its crazy that we oh so often let the outward appearance of things not only get in the way of how we view ourselves but how we view the things and people God may be calling to help us.
Saul saw Goliath and was afraid based on how big the problem looked.
Then God sent help and he was apprehensive based on how the provision looked.
How often do we run from battles God promises we are big enough to fight because of how they look? How often do we suppress dreams God gives us because we are afraid they may be too unrealistic or lofty? On the other hand, how many blessings do we give up because the package looks bad? How many places do we miss out on because the journey looks uncomfortable? I hate to break it to you, but the way God views things and the way we view things is very different. A lot of times we view things by what we can get from it, while God views things by what he can get out of it.
I love how the message bible talks about this.
Human wisdom is so tiny, so impotent, next to the seeming absurdity of God. Human strength can’t begin to compete with God’s “weakness.” Take a good look, friends, at who you were when you got called into this life. I don’t see many of “the brightest and the best” among you, not many influential, not many from high-society families. Isn’t it obvious that God deliberately chose men and women that the culture overlooks and exploits and abuses, chose these “nobodies” to expose the hollow pretensions of the “somebodies”? That makes it quite clear that none of you can get by with blowing your own horn before God. Everything that we have—right thinking and right living, a clean slate and a fresh start—comes from God by way of Jesus Christ. That’s why we have the saying, “If you’re going to blow a horn, blow a trumpet for God.”
(1 Corinthians 25-31)
God can use anybody and anything. God will use anybody or anything. All that matters is our willingness and availability. God is offering us all a chance to be used to fight for him in some way shape or form. You may be called to be a friend when someone needs it, or fight for those who are being oppressed. But it really doesn’t matter how good you are. What matters is how much you let God control. All that matters is how much we let go so God can come in and work with us through us. We can either be like David, the underdog who lets God work through him to fight the battle God calls him to. Or we can be like Saul, the guy called, chosen and admired, but still struggling with the belief that he and the tools God may send to help are good enough.
If God called you, he called you.
You are more than capable to defeat the Goliath in your life.
God has anointed and appointed you for such a time as this.
Stop running.
Stop hiding.
Stop deferring.
Stop doubting.
