Give Your Weaknesses to God So He Can Use You

Metropolitan

September 30, 2019

Three principles I offer to help us become … men and women like those from the book of Acts who have heard the call of God:

We must live according to what we know from Scripture, committed to a heavenly kingdom, so that our lives affect not only our home and community, and perhaps our state and country—but also the entire earth. . . .

The Bible is full of illustrations of two groups of people—those who know the truth and say, “Lord, Lord,” but who demonstrate by their very lives that they do not really mean it; and those who say, “Lord, Lord,” and follow His footsteps. The second group are the people who have counted the cost, who look straight at the cross and gladly accept the inconveniences, pain and price they must pay to follow the Lord.

We read about these people of faith in Hebrews 11. Their faith cost them everything but they changed the course of their generation. C.S. Lewis wrote in The Screwtape Letters, “Active habits are strengthened by repetition but passive ones are weakened. The more often [a man] feels without acting, the less he will be able ever to act, and in the long run, the less he will be able to feel.”

How true this is! God’s Word says, “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says” (James 1:22).

A.W. Tozer wrote in his book The Root of the Righteous:

We can prove our faith by our committal to it, and in no other way. Any faith that does not command the one who holds it is not a real belief; it is a pseudo belief only. And it might shock some of us profoundly if we were brought suddenly face to face with our beliefs and forced to test them in the fires of practical living.

Many of us Christians have become extremely skillful in arranging our lives so as to admit the truth of Christianity without being embarrassed by its implications.

So wide is the gulf that separates theory from practice in the church that an inquiring stranger who chances upon both would scarcely dream that there was any relation between them. An intelligent observer of our human scene who heard the Sunday morning sermon, and later watched the Sunday afternoon conduct of those who had heard it, would conclude that he had been examining two distinct and contrary religions.

Christians habitually weep and pray over beautiful truth, only to draw back from that same truth when it comes to the difficult job of putting it in practice.

When we hear the New Testament with willing, open hearts, the Gospel will penetrate our very lives and break them open, energizing our eyes, our ears, our hands, our legs—every part of us. And when we allow the Gospel to energize us, we become vessels in the Lord’s hands, pouring out our prayers, finances, reputation, lifestyle—and ultimately our very lives.

Do we have to be “somebody” to hear the call of God and make a difference? In my own life I have seen time and again how God uses “nobodies.” Sometimes I feel insecure. At other times I feel overwhelmed with all that I know needs to be done. Again and again I struggle and fail.

Where do I go when this happens? To the cross! How many times? Many times a day, if needed. The cross is the place where I can go and say, “Lord, I am Yours, along with all my weaknesses. But Your grace alone is what I need to serve You.”

Perhaps you feel you are useless to the Lord, that you are not good enough, or that you have already wasted your life. But you are still in His hand. Don’t you know that every day with Jesus is a new beginning? The Lord never condemns you or says, “Sorry, you didn’t make it.” His mercies, He tells us, are new every morning (see Lamentations 3:22–23). Whether you have lost 7 days or 70 years, the Lord says to you, “Return to me with all your heart. . . . I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten” (Joel 2:12, 25).

The Lord does not ask you to be a success or a superstar. In fact, if you truly desire to be a world-changer, here is the second principle: Give your weaknesses to God so He can use you. All He requires is a weak, brokenhearted child who will surrender at the foot of the cross.

Look at Gideon’s life. The army of the Midianites had invaded Israel and were plundering everything in sight. We are told that “Midian . . . impoverished the Israelites” (Judges 6:6). Gideon was threshing his wheat in a winepress to hide it from the army when an angel suddenly appeared to him. Did the angel say, “You scared rat, you good-for-nothing runaway”? No, he told Gideon, “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior” (verse 12).

Gideon probably thought, Who’s he talking to? It couldn’t be me. Doesn’t he see I’m hiding from the Midianites? He must know I’m scared to death.

But even though that was the way Gideon saw himself, in God he was strong. How? “Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit” (Zechariah 4:6; see Joel 3:10).

The other day I saw a painting that brought tears to my eyes. It was a nighttime scene with a little boy asleep in his bed. He was clutching his teddy bear as he slept peacefully. And there beside the bed was his father, kneeling and praying for him.

As I looked at that picture, I thought of the many times I have knelt beside my son’s bed and prayed, “O God, let him live for You.”

God is calling all of us to live for Him, to pour ourselves out for others. . . . Here is the third principle: Live your life with the same heartfelt urgency the father in the picture felt for his son.

Do you have a family member who does not know Jesus? Begin to pray for him or her. Commit yourself to fast. Pray for your children, your co-workers, your community, for the world. . . .

Come before the presence of the Lord and tell Him you are ready to stop playing games. No more pretend Christianity; you mean business. Commit yourself to living for, not just knowing about, another kingdom—God’s kingdom. Tell Him you are no longer satisfied with knowing all the answers. Now you want to make some serious decisions for your life, starting today, by His grace. This is a new day for you to begin making changes in those areas of your life that you have not yet surrendered to the Lord. And I can assure you, His grace is sufficient.

Stop being satisfied with your own little society. Take the time to learn to pray. Commit your life daily for the sake of His kingdom. . . .

God is not looking for strong, rich, confident people. He is looking for those willing to live according to what they know, committed to a heavenly kingdom, who come to Him with their inadequacies and weaknesses, ready to be filled with His power. . . . He is looking for you.