Jesus demonstrated during his life on this
earth the secret of being used of God. It is a complete dependence on God and a
total renunciation of self-reliance. Jesus did this by maintaining a consistent
prayer life with his father. He got his directions, empowerment and approval
from his father. Oswald Chambers very eloquently writes about this important
principle:
God
can achieve his purpose either through the absence of human power and resources,
or the abandonment of reliance on them. All through history God has chosen and
used nobodies, because their unusual dependence on him made possible the unique
display of his power and grace. He chose and used somebodies only when they
renounced dependence on their natural abilities and resources."[i]
I don’t know which is a bigger miracle, a
nobody who believes God can use him or a somebody who abandons self-reliance.
Either way it is the way God uses people, and it all comes down to whether or
not we will depend on God.
The Apostle Paul has given us nearly half of
the New Testament with his epistles and outside of Christ is the most
influential person in Christianity. He had an incredible grasp of this truth
and made it a theme in all his writing. Paul had been arrogant and proud of his
pedigree and educational credentials, but when he met Christ, he considered all
that loss for the gain of knowing Christ. The proud Saul became the humble
Paul.
In Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians he
amply covers this subject of our human frailty and weakness. Paul had learned
that human weakness, when surrendered to God, becomes the arena for God to
display his extraordinary power. This verse offers a beautiful picture of the
concept of dependence on God.
2 Corinthians 4:7 “But we have this treasure
in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from
us.”
The metaphor clearly describes that God has
given to us his power which is displayed in our frail humanity. This treasure is
God’s and must be seen as God’s not ours. That’s the hard part because human
beings like to be praised for their accomplishments. When God, however, uses a
nobody and showcases his power, there is no mistaking who did the work. Only in
dependence on God can we really see God do the impossible things we need to
see. Only God knows what is ahead and how it all fits together. To live any way
but in dependence of him is complete folly for the believer.
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