We live in the era of celebrity. Celebrity actors, musicians, businessmen and women, politicians, athletes, authors, and all kinds of artists. There aren’t just a few either, and most days we feel surrounded by them.
They are in the news and in conversations at the watercooler. Just turn around and you will see them everywhere: commercials, billboards, magazines, podcasts, self-help books, and the list goes on. They are smiling, laughing, crying, grieving, eating, drinking, and posing.
If they aren’t on their fabulous vacation, then they are at their picture-perfect house. They travel in luxury and return home in luxury. They have dog walkers, nannies, personal chefs, publicists, business managers, and my all-time favorite, a team of talented hair, skin, and nail pros that comes to their house to make sure they are pampered and looking their best when they walk outside. Sometimes even that team is famous.
We compare ourselves to them without even realizing it is happening. We feel less qualified, less blessed, and less beautiful. We don’t see the real moments of vulnerability and struggle, and we don’t really know what their lives are like.
Then there are the Bible celebrities. Esther is out here with months of beauty treatments, Moses parts the Red Sea, and Deborah and Barak lead Israel to military victory. Peter preaches to thousands at a time, and Paul raises people from the dead. Heck, Paul’s sweat heals people!
Daniel survived the lion’s den, and his three buddies Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego survived being thrown into a furnace. David kills Goliath, and his mighty men kill hundreds a day. Mary, a virgin, bravely gave birth to Jesus, God’s own Son, in a stable, John saw the end times, Philip was transported to another place and my head is swimming.
How could I measure up to the people of God in scripture? It seems so simple when you are reading about it a couple thousand years later. These people and miracles seem so mystical and sure of themselves, a different kind of people than us.
There was plenty that happened in their lives that are not written on the pages of the Bible. It’s not their story, it’s God’s. They felt unqualified. The enemy definitely tried to convince them that they were unqualified. They were scared, surprised, excited, and made mistakes all the time. There were times they doubted the Lord and seconded guessed what they heard Him saying and where they saw Him leading. They asked Him not to send them. Send someone else. Someone qualified.
Does this sound familiar? I can’t do that! Someone else would do it better. I need a degree for that. Top of the class would be best. I need more help! I need a team. I don’t have the resources. That sort of thing is for the professionals. I’m too old. I’m too young. I already ruined my chances. Unqualified, undeserving, incompetent, ineligible, and inept.
That my dear friends, is the line of garbage the enemy is feeding us all day long. That’s his whole deal. Keep people from God and if not that then keep them from obeying God and serving God well. Why do we agree with Satan instead of God?
God has things for us to do! He wants us to start businesses, become doctors, teachers, scientists, and lawyers. He wants us to have children and adopt. He wants us to have long healthy relationships, and long healthy marriages. He wants us to be clergy, missionaries, run homeless shelters, and farms. He wants us to be housewives, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and friends.
God wants us to sit in the dirt with those that are suffering, and He wants us to sit with rulers and point them to Himself. He wants us to tell people about what Jesus did for us and what He did for them. He wants us to heal the sick, raise the dead, and cast out demons. We are to make disciples of all nations. Not some of us, but all of us.
19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” – Matthew 28:19-20
He wants to do the tiny things and the huge things. They are all so important. The dishes, the laundry, and the things in the public eye. He wants us to be brave and tender to His leading so that we don’t miss things. He wants us to do the good works He made us for in secret and in public.
Do you feel unqualified to do whatever God is calling you to? Me too, but I know Him. How wonderful is that? I know the One Who qualifies me to do the things He is asking me to do.
So he said to me, “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the Lord Almighty. – Zechariah 4:6
Subscribe for free to receive new posts and updates from Band of Opals!