The Shepherd Staff

“As for me, I baptize you with water; but One is coming who is mightier than I, and I am not fit to untie the thong of His sandals.”  (John the baptizer, as he prepared national Israel to receive their soon-to-arrive Messiah-King, Luke 3:16)

Over the years I have met a number of men and women of God whose lives and ministries radiated the power of God.  They came from different backgrounds and cultures.  They had different personalities and gifts and passions.  And they were called to different ministries.  But they all shared one thing in common:

not one of them had an air of self-sufficiency

I don’t think I’ve ever met an effective servant of Christ who had not first been broken.  Each one’s confidence in the Lord was strong; but his self-assurance was gone.  He is the kind of person who prays, “Why did You call me to do this?  Who am I?  I am not fit for this ministry!”

Actually, they are in good company:

• “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt?”  (Moses, after hearing God’s call to deliver Israel from Egyptian bondage, Exodus 3:10-11)

• “O Lord, how shall I deliver Israel?  Behold, my family is the least in Manasseh, and I am the youngest in my father’s house.”  (Gideon, after hearing God’s call to deliver Israel from Midian’s oppression, Judges 6:15)

• “Actually I should have been commended by you, for in no respect was I inferior to the most eminent apostles, even though I am a nobody.”  (Paul, to the church in Corinth who questioned his calling as an apostle, 2^nd Corinthians 12:11)

The Lord has a good reason for bringing His servants to this point of self-doubt:

“My power is perfected in your weakness” (2^nd Corinthians 12:9)

It is one of the paradoxes of the spiritual life.  When one thinks he is strong, he is actually quite weak.  But when he thinks he is weak, he is in a position to be quite strong … in the Lord.  Contrary to the world’s value system,

the LORD will not use us because we are mighty in ability.

There is just too much of us that will get in His way.

Nor will the LORD use us in spite of our weaknesses.

This sounds good; but that is not completely true.  The LORD does not use us in spite of our weaknesses.

The LORD will use us because of our weaknesses.

For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; 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.  But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, so that, just as it is written, “LET HIM WHO BOASTS, BOAST IN THE LORD.”  (1^st Corinthians 1:26-31)

It does not feel very good; but the fact is, our all-wise and sovereign God has every right to break us.  Sometimes He uses sandpaper.  At other times He uses a jackhammer.  Either way, He has every right to do what it takes to empty us of our self-assurance

• because in doing so, we are made more dependent on Him …

• and being emptied of ourselves, we can now be filled with His power …

• and by that power, our lives are better able to represent the Savior to a world that desperately needs to know Him …

• and by that power, our ministries become more effective, more fruitful, more powerful.

Have you ever felt less-than-“fit” to serve Jesus Christ?  If so, let’s not miss the reason why.  We are not weak because God failed to make us strong.  We are made weak that we might be filled with the power of God … for the strengthening of His people … to the glory of His Name.

Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.  (2^nd Corinthians 12:10)

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