September 15 I Saturday

Proverbs 22-24

2 Corinthians 8

“Therefore, as it is written: ‘Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.’”   —1 Corinthians 1:31

When we consider the 12 disciples, they do not seem like a ministry dream team. Jesus did not choose Pharisees, long-serving priests or other religious elites as His apostles and future leadership of the church. He chose fishermen, tax collectors and political revolutionaries, the kind of men most people would not have chosen. He chose loud mouths, doubters, the uneducated, people prone to stubbornness and argument, and even one “who became a traitor” (Luke 6:16). He did not choose spiritual supermen but ordinary people, exactly the kind of people we can relate to.

Jesus took ordinary people and called them to do extraordinary things, but they were not responsible for the power or authority behind their deeds. The extra in the ordinary that makes the ordinary extraordinary is Christ Himself. The disciples had the power to preach the Word, heal the sick and cast out demons because they went under Christ’s authority.

Paul writes something similar to the Corinthian church: “Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. 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. God chose the lowly things of this world…so that no one may boast before Him. It is because of Him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption”
(1 Corinthians 1:26-30). It is a great day when we discover and acknowledge that we are foolish, weak and lowly, because it is in our weakness where Jesus exhibits His power. This should leave us with confidence not only in our daily living, but in every task that Christ calls us to, because He Himself is all the resource we need.

The disciples turned the world upside down not because they had great spiritual résumés but because they exchanged their weakness for His strength. In Acts 4, Peter and John were forced to appear before the Sanhedrin after they healed a paralyzed man in the name of Jesus outside the temple. The Sanhedrin furiously tried to stop them from preaching Christ, but Luke reports, “When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realised that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus” (Acts 4:13). Christ alone could explain how these ordinary men were doing and speaking such extraordinary things, and when we attach ourselves to Christ, He will be the extra in our ordinary as well.

Prayer: Sovereign Lord, I recognize my ordinariness and my failure. Exchange my weakness for Your strength, and enable me to do the extraordinary things You have in store. Thank You, Father.