Scripture is filled with examples of God using ordinary means and ordinary people to accomplish His purposes. When He chose a man to lead the nation of Israel out of Egypt, He chose a reluctant man with a stammering tongue (Ex. 4:10). When Jesus chose the 12, he chose a group of uneducated and overlooked and even ostracized people (Acts 4:13); and while we know something of the biography of some of the Twelve, we know virtually nothing of about half of the Twelve.
Further, the Bible contains many genealogies — and while an occasional familiar name appears in those long lists, the vast majority of the names mean nothing to us — the stories of the great men are filled with anonymous, ordinary, and non-influential people. Read the story of the early church in Rome (Rom. 16); it’s ordinary people. Even when God used powerful people like Isaiah and Jeremiah, the backgrounds of those people were ordinary and humble. And often their ministries were fruitless in their day (Is. 6:9-11), or like the Apostle Paul, when they were fruitful they suffered greatly to make them depend on the Lord (2 Cor. 11-12).
The Lord uses (only) ordinary people. And He uses ordinary people for one primary purpose, as Paul says in his first letter to the Corinthians (1:27-29):
“…but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are, so that no man may boast before God.”
He makes us weak and He gifts us through salvation with the Holy Spirit and then uses us for His purposes — not to glorify us, but to bring Himself glory so that the world might turn to Him for salvation and life.
He uses our lives and our work, but it is His gospel, and His wisdom, and His empowerment that brings about transformation in people’s lives. And when we are used in that way, we don’t brag (boast) in our own power and wisdom, but we boast in the power of God.
And that is true of all us ordinary people — and also of those who are ordinary people but have broad and influential ministries, like the apostle Paul. That’s why he said a few verses later,
“I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling, and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God” (1 Cor. 2:3-5).
As Paul thought about himself, he saw weakness and fear. But when he thought about the ministry he was given, he saw the Spirit’s power, God’s wisdom, and God’s power (yes, he said that a second time). It’s not unlike the confession of John the Baptist, who said of Christ, “He must increase; I must decrease” (Jn. 3:30).
So even when we think people are extraordinary, they are ordinary. They are flesh and blood and have their origins in soil that God fashioned into a human body. We need to be careful not to confuse the effect of God’s work in a man’s life (which may well be extraordinary because of God’s power) and the nature of the man himself (which will always be ordinary).
Give thanks for (and don’t be discouraged by) your ordinariness. And give thanks that despite your ordinariness, you are empowered through salvation with remarkable power and wisdom in the gospel and the Word to be used in remarkable ways.
“People Crowd” by davide ragusa/ CC0 1.0
Words of Grace 