May I ask you a few questions about yourself? Are you a Phi Beta Kappa, an All-American, Miss America, listed in Who's Who, voted "Most Likely to Succeed," or in the bluebook of society? If you answered yes to any or all of these questions, I have good news for you. God can still use you, though He is going to have a little more difficulty doing it.
But if, on the other hand, you have done or achieved none of the things the world prizes so highly, God delights to use you. If you have never won anything but the booby prize, God desires to get glory through you. As a matter of fact, He prefers to use ordinary people.
You'll understand why I say all of this when you read the following verses, which are crucial to our study of what it means to be a temple of the living God:
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For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; and base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to naught things that are (
1 Cor. 1:26-28).
Before we look at why God has chosen to do things this way, we need to deal with a practical matter. Is it humility to say you are not capable of being used of God? No; that is an insult to the mighty God who inhabits your heart! Believers sometimes stand with drooping shoulders and with apologetic voice declare, "I just serve God in my poor, little, weak way."
Whenever I hear that I want to say, "Well, quit it! God does not want you to serve Him in that way. He wants you to serve Him in His mighty, dynamic way. You are a temple of God. He lives within you. He wants to display His glory in you!" What some people call humility, I call poor posture. My question to people like this is, why should we be so inhibited when we are so inhabited?
You see, God has a wonderful plan. He is in the business of getting glory to Himself, and here is how He does it: He uses what the world calls a foolish message. "For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God" (
1:18).
He then chooses what the world considers to be a weak and unworthy messenger and compounds the two in the crucible of His mighty power and wisdom. He does this so that "no flesh should glory in his presence" (
1:29). This way the God who lives in the house gets all the glory, not the house!
Embarrassing Qualifications
To serve God in this mighty army of the ordinary, there are some downright embarrassing qualifications. Let's see how close we come to being admissible.