Something Only God Could Do

"Until He overwhelms us, we really don't know Him."

GOD TOOK a man who was nothing and made him something. God took a man who was something and made him nothing. He took a man without any teaching of the law and sent him to men steeped in the law. He took a man filled with pharisaical teaching and sent him to people who weren’t Jews at all. The first man followed Jesus everywhere He went, learning from Him. The second man murdered Christians, despising their beliefs. Who we are now, today, makes no difference when in the hands of a loving God. Peter was willing to die for Jesus. Paul willed Jesus to die until a light from heaven and the voice of the Savior changed him forever. Peter had no pedigree, just a boat and broken nets when Jesus called him. But God saw in them both something stalwart, something bold, something humble that they would do His work until their deaths.

Peter’s words in the first two verses of 1 Peter 1 speaks so loudly. Here was a Galilean, whose accent had gotten him noticed in the palace where Jesus was accused, who traveled all across Asia. Here was a man without Paul’s wealth of schooling, who writes as one with much learning. God not only changes our hearts, but He fills us with His being and gives us access to His knowledge. James 1:5 in the Wuest Translation says when we ask for wisdom, “the giving God gives to all with simplicity and without reserve.” The Passion Translation of this verse says, God will “overwhelm” you with “his generous grace.”

Until He overwhelms us, we really don’t know Him.

Peter stood in the middle of Jerusalem preaching the gospel, quoting the prophet Joel, and 3,000 were saved. Peter walked through the streets and people lined up in the hopes his shadow would fall on them. Paul wrote the majority of his letters from prison and said it furthered the gospel for now Christ was manifest in all of Caesar’s palace. Paul, after continually warring with the Jews, left the synagogue and went next door, literally, to preach to the Gentiles. Jesus was a man who grew up on Nazareth, a town so insignificant at the time that when Nathanael was told by Phillip the Messiah was “Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph,” Nathanael scoffed, “Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth?”

God not only delights in using insignificant people, He delights in changing significant people into who they would not ever otherwise be. He delights in making of the weak things of this world, something strong and wise and powerful, and of the strong things something humble and full of His praises. We’ve taken “with God nothing is impossible” at face value, to mean healings and miraculous provisions. Jesus did, in fact, multiply bread and fish. But it also means our personalities, our talents, our reticence, and even our pride, all can be used and can be changed forever. Joseph was going to discreetly put away Mary and not take her as his wife until God changed him.

“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 nought things that are.” (1 Corinthians 1:26-28)

Who I am today is a result of God’s mercy and His goodness. There are things in my life I cannot ever go back to. I’m not that woman anymore. There are other things God has used mightily which surprised me because they didn’t see usable to me. There are talents I have which He has molded into His palm. Who I will become in the future already surprises me. I, an insignificant writer from a small town, who’s never had a goal larger than fixing supper. I lay all of me in His hands and, like Paul, look not at who I thought I was but who God wants me to be, seeing in the images of him and Peter, something only God could do.

Which is the point of the gospel, that with God in us, with all of us as God’s, He can do great and mighty things that we know not. After all, God placed Himself in Bethlehem in a cradle in order to die and crown Himself King, with thousands of children singing His praises, and how marvelous that is.

“Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied.” (1 Peter 1:2)

“Though I might also have confidence in the flesh. If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more: Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee; Concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ.” (Philippians 3:4-7)

Tree Image by Leo from Pixabay
Clouds Image by Michaela, at home in Germany from Pixabay


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Suzanne D. Williams, Author
www.suzannedwilliams.com
www.feelgoodromance.com