“For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty.” (1 Corinthians 1:26–27)
God is interested in your success. Even if you are not the swiftest, strongest, wisest, most knowledgeable and most skillful in the natural, God can still bless you with good success when you depend on His grace. You can rise above the system of meritocracy through His undeserved, unearned and unmerited favour. The world’s system only rewards the strong, while those who are weak are neglected and, in some cases, even despised. But, in Jesus, there is hope for the weak.
God’s way is completely opposite to the world’s way. “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways, says the LORD . For 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)
According to 1 Corinthians 1:26, “not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called.” Isn’t it fascinating to discover that while the world looks favourably upon the wise, mighty and noble, God does not? Let’s see in the next verse what God chooses instead: “God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty.” Isn’t it amazing? God has chosen the foolish and weak things to qualify for His abundant blessings. But the verse does not say that the foolish and weak things will remain foolish and weak. Instead, by God’s unmerited favour, they will put to shame the so-called wise and mighty things in this world. In His hands of grace, the foolish and weak things become even wiser and mightier than the wise and mighty things of the world.
Read this preacher’s testimony.
He said, “In high school, I was a stutterer. I watched the other kids talking and reading aloud in class effortlessly while I had serious trouble getting words out of my mouth. I remember how there was this teacher who would come into class and always get me to stand and read aloud in class. He did this just for the sheer pleasure of watching me stammer and stutter, knowing full well what would happen. And true enough, while I tried to get the first word out —”th-th- th-th the,”* my classmates (especially the girls) would laugh, the teacher would laugh, and my ears would burn and turn red. This would happen every time he asked me to read in class. Honestly, if you had told me then that I would be preaching to thousands of people every week, I would have run for cover under the table and said, “Get thee behind me, Satan!” If there were an area anyone who knew me back then believed I would fail in, it would have to be public speaking. But God looked down and said, _”I am going to make a preacher out of this boy.”
One day, when I was tired of being miserable, I told the Lord, “Lord, I don’t have much to give You, but whatever I have, I give You.” I remember how my voice was the thing that embarrassed me the most, so I said, “Lord, I give You my voice.”*_ When I said that, I pitied Him for getting someone like me who had many weaknesses.
To cut a long story short, something supernatural happened after I gave all my weaknesses to the Lord. I stopped being conscious of my stuttering, and it supernaturally disappeared.
In the area of my weakness, God supplied His strength. About two years ago, one of the teachers from my high school days came to my church and sat in one of the services I was preaching. After the service, she wrote me a note that said, “I see a miracle. This must be God!” Thank you, Lord, for turning a stammer and stutter into a preacher. If God did for this preacher, be ready; next is you.
Now, why does the Lord choose foolish and weak things to confound this world’s wise and mighty things? The answer is simple. It’s so that “no flesh should glory in His presence”(1 Corinthians 1:29). God chooses the things that are weak in the natural so that no man can boast of his own ability—all glory redounds to the Lord. I believe that God chose someone like the stammer, stutter, uneducated, poor, etc., to preach the gospel so that others (especially those who had known them before) would look at them and say, “This must be God!” and God gets the glory. Now, seeing how God has used them and or you, their/ your main weakness, to bring life transformation and miracles not only to people in their/ your country but also around the world through their/ your social media and media broadcasts, you feel humbled because you know what you were like before God touched you. My friend, it is those who are proud and depend on their human strength that God cannot use. So when you look at yourself and see only weaknesses, rely on God’s unmerited favour and know that God can and will use you!
Prayer & Meditation
Father, You know all about my weaknesses. Yet, You are willing to use me for Your purposes and glory. Therefore, I give You all my shortcomings and lean wholly on Your unmerited favour. In Your hands, those weaknesses will become strengths. Thank You for Your unmerited favour that will cause me to rise above the world’s system of meritocracy and experience success beyond my natural abilities, experience and qualifications!
Contributor
By Gilbert Magomere Ayieko
Minister
