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If it’s your job to delegate important tasks on a team, do you choose a member who is weak? Or do you generally choose the person most qualified in knowledge, skill, and experience and leave them to it? It’s perfectly acceptable and expected to do this in our daily lives. But have you ever noticed that the ones who are chosen by God to lead His people and preach His word aren’t always the most learned, the most willing, or the most objectively “qualified?”
Now that’s just silly, some may think. We want things to get done efficiently, done fast, and done well. If we’re going to give an important task to someone underqualified, we should at least pair them up with someone who knows what they’re doing. Evenso, God has His way, and we humans have ours – and they’re as different as heaven and earth.
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
Isaiah 55:8-9
So let’s understand why God works in ways that we, as people, normally wouldn’t. And while doing this, try to consider things from God’s perspective as the Creator.
The Purpose of Choosing the Weak
Choosing the Weak Glorifies God
Throughout each era of the Bible, God chooses people to carry out His will on earth. Noah, obeying God’s command, built the ark and warned people of the coming flood. Moses, with God’s guidance, led the nation of Israel through the desert to the Promised Land, and Joshua completed the work by leading them into that Promised Land. Jesus testified about the fulfillment of the Old Testament, established a new covenant with believers, and died on the cross for the atonement of our sins.
During his ministry, Jesus chose certain people to also teach and task with spreading God’s Word. And as Jesus was about to ascend, he tasked his disciples to spread the gospel to the whole world. In short, those who are chosen by God are tasked with teaching and spreading His word to everyone. But what kinds of people does God usually choose for this task?
God’s Strength Shines When We are Weak
Let’s look at an explanation from the Apostle Paul, when he was praying to God about a certain hardship he was suffering.
…“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecution, difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
2 Corinthians 12:9-10
Here the apostle Paul writes about how he will boast in his weaknesses but not in himself. We see that despite his weakness, Christ’s power rests upon him and makes him strong.
What were these weaknesses? In Romans 7:15-25, Paul discusses two laws waging war in his body – good and evil. His mind that is a slave to God’s law, and his sinful nature that is a slave to sin. A body of death that he seeks rescue from.
For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do–this I keep on doing.
Romans 7:19
Paul struggled with sin as all the rest of us do. He battled daily with his own will versus the will of God, and also suffered countless other hardships while carrying out the work of the gospel. Think about the task that was given to Paul by Jesus: preach the gospel of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles – people who had no connection to Jesus or God, people who have their own idols or religions – but he was to go and spread the gospel to as many as he could.
If We’re Weak, We Can’t be Arrogant About What God Accomplishes Through Us
While we might think Paul was perfectly qualified to carry out this task, Paul wrote otherwise.
He wrote of how he wasn’t a trained speaker (2 Corinthians 11:6). He was “unimpressive” and his speaking “amounted to nothing” in person, according to some of the saints.
Nevertheless, it was the power of Jesus and God that gave Paul the strength to do God’s work despite his weaknesses. He could do things that would not have been possible had Paul just been working on his own. He continued preaching the gospel despite immense persecution, false accusations, being thrown in jail, threats, plots to kill him, being stoned, and his persecutors even following him from city to city.
This way, Paul himself could only give glory to God and none other. This isn’t God saying, “Praise me, praise me!” as if it were some vanity project. That’s what people do, not God. But credit should be given where it’s due. Imagine if Paul gave all that credit to himself, thinking he was something so special and powerful to do the work of God. How arrogant would he have become? The devil, the original arrogant guy, would’ve had a field day.
When we’re weak and humble, it directs people to the One with the true power, God. It serves as proof of who is doing the work, proof of God’s own existence for those who have doubts.
Choosing the Weak Shames the Strong
If God is choosing weak people to do His work, then what about those who are considered “strong?” How do you think a strong person would feel seeing the ones God chose?
But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong…so that no one may boast before him…Therefore as it is written: “Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.”
1 Corinthians 1:27, 29, 31
The Weak and Uneducated Sharing the Greatest Knowledge
Let’s look at this verse in the context of the first coming. Jesus chose his twelve disciples. Among them were fisherman and tax collectors–not exactly high in society or well-versed in the Jewish scriptures, as they proved on several occasions. The wise, or strong, were the Jewish leaders at that time. People who were respected, of high social standing, and were well-learned.
The fact that Jesus chose these fishermen and tax collectors to do the work, gave them his authority, and gave them superior understanding of the Scriptures–this shamed the wise and strong.
The disciples were able to understand the Old Testament prophecies and their fulfillment, while the religious leaders remained in the dark. The disciples could perform miracles through the authority given by Jesus, and who received it from God – displaying God’s power to those who only had power and authority granted by people.
Think of a spiritual mentor you value – whether you have a real-life relationship or you see them on YouTube. A famous pastor or theologian maybe. Someone you really respect. A person you expect to be chosen by God to do His work. But what if, instead of that person, God came to you?
Hold up, you’ve got the wrong guy. Maybe you’d feel this way, denying God’s task and giving reason upon reason to not do it, like Moses had done. This is the kind of situation we see happening at the first coming of Jesus.
Choosing the Weak Kept the Church Humble
God chose these weaker people and demonstrated His power in them, so that everyone who saw would know that whatever they did was done through God’s strength and not their own. These people performed miracles – they healed people and raised the dead. It was through Jesus, who got this power from God, that the disciples were able to do these things. They couldn’t claim that it came from themselves, so they gave glory only to God.
And if they saw someone becoming arrogant and boasting of another brother, the apostles were ready to correct them. In Paul’s letter to the believers in Corinth, he addressed divisions in the church. Because of their preaching and work, some people had begun to say, “I follow Paul,” or “I follow Apollos.” To which Paul responded:
What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe–as the Lord has assigned each to his task. I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.
1 Corinthians 3:5-7
As Paul writes, he may have planted the seed and Apollos may have watered it, but God was the one who made it grow. God uses people as tools and instruments to do His work – but they would be nothing without Him.
What About Us?
Are we humble, or are we quick to glorify ourselves? Do we consider ourselves to be the strong and learned – deserving of receiving God’s power and glory? Because if we do, we need to do some reflection and heart checking.
Many of us aren’t active workers in a church, so perhaps it can be hard to put ourselves in the situation. So think about your attitude in other things – at school, work, your identity on social media. Do you do things to receive recognition, praise from people for your own work–a vanity project? Or again, are you more concerned with giving glory to God no matter what it is you do?
That’s the kind of heart God looks for and the kind of person He can choose to do His work. Couldn’t a person with that heart be seen as weak or powerless, if they are quick to lower themselves, never accepting glory or praise, but always pushing the spotlight off of themselves?
If we’re arrogant and boastful of ourselves, there would be no space for God’s power to work, because we would always be fighting for the right to say we’re the one who’s so special and powerful. And if it’s God’s power that is working in us, who are we to try and claim glory for that? Why would God want to work through someone who takes the credit for the work He is doing through them?
Blessed are the Meek
We need to practice lowering ourselves just as Jesus, the disciples, and God’s other workers did. When you’re feeling weak or powerless to do something, that’s when you need to rely on God and His strength.
When you’re faced with an obstacle or challenge that you know you can’t overcome by yourself, or even when you’re doing God’s work – rely on God. His strength is made perfect and shines beautifully through our weaknesses. And when we rely on Him, do you think He would let that go unrewarded? Of course not.
Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
Matthew 5:5
Written by Samantha
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