God chose me. He didn’t just get stuck with me, and He didn’t settle for me because there was no one else He could choose. He deliberately chose me. And the same is true for you too.
I didn’t have a special talent when He chose me. The thing I do best is talk, and He’s made me a mouth in the body of Christ. My voice is unusual and unique—not the kind of voice you would think He would choose to broadcast all over the place. But God has given me the opportunity to speak to billions of people around the world. And I don’t always use correct grammar or pronounce words just right, but we don’t have to be polished according to the world’s standards to be used mightily by God.
People listen to me because God has anointed me to speak for Him—it’s part of His destiny for my life. And God will anoint whomever He chooses to work through. That includes you.
So whom does God use? He uses common, ordinary people like you and me. First Corinthians 1:27-28 says: “God selected (deliberately chose) what in the world is foolish to put the wise to shame, and what the world calls weak to put the strong to shame. And God also selected (deliberately chose) what in the world is lowborn and insignificant and branded and treated with contempt, even the things that are nothing, that He might depose and bring to nothing the things that are” (The Amplified Bible).
When I started to preach the gospel, some of my friends rejected me—they didn’t think I should do that because I’m a woman. In fact, they told me I couldn’t do that.
I was doing it because God told me to do it, and I trusted that if He told me I could do it then I could do it. If you too are willing to have an uncommon goal, God can do something great through you!
Every common person can be used mightily by God. You just have to believe God can use you and be daring enough to embrace the goals or vision He puts in your heart.
What He wants you to do probably won’t make sense to you. But God isn’t expecting you to accomplish His goals in your strength or by your own understanding. He wants to do them through you. We simply need to cooperate with Him.
As I stepped out in faith to pursue God’s call on my life, I faced a lot of adversity. Here are several things I learned that helped me to keep going:
- God’s Word is a border for my life. As long as I stay within the guidelines laid out in Scripture, I’ll have what I need—wisdom, understanding of God’s promises to me, righteousness, peace and joy—to do what I need to do. God is faithful and true to His Word. \
- I have to be willing to finish what I start. God uses committed people who aren’t led by emotion. It’s easy to be excited in the beginning when something is new, but the ones who cross the finish line are the ones who hang in there when no one else is excited anymore.
- When no one is there to help me, I get to know Jesus very well. The narrow road of living for God and not conforming to the ways of the world is often lonely (see Matt. 7:13-14). But the trade-off of gaining real intimacy with Christ is worth more than anything you could ever get from the world.
- God’s plan is a possibility but not a “positively.” I can choose to trust God and cooperate with Him, but if I don’t, His plan won’t just happen on its own.
You have a destiny. Ephesians 2:10 tells us God created us to do good works that He planned for us in advance.
His plans are great—not average or mediocre. We just have to be willing to do some things that are uncommon by the world’s standards to achieve them.
Joyce Meyer is the author of more than 80 books, including Battlefield of the Mind and Power Thoughts, which releases this month, and the host of Enjoying Everyday Life radio and TV programs.
