Let’s look at verse 4 again: ⁴Be assured that when we speak to you we’re not after crowd approval—only God approval. Since we’ve been put through that battery of tests, you’re guaranteed that both we and the Message are free of error, mixed motives, or hidden agendas. We never used words to butter you up.

The English Standard Version puts the first sentence like this: “… but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel …” Unbelievable what a verse can reveal when you read it again and again. This first sentence is very important. It says you’re not just an ordinary person. You are not alive because your parents decided to have another child. You exist because God approved you, because He had the plan of you in his mind. Nothing on earth is accidental. God has a plan for you.

But here I first think about Pietie (not his real name). Someone brought him to the business. A thin youth of 17, good with his hands. The day he turned 18, he arrived at work after 12 to say he wasn’t coming to work at all that day, because of a motor cycle accident the previous evening while celebrating his birthday and that he was actually still very drunk. As a child, his parents left him with his sister and never came back for him. He had to go to an orphanage. Last week, his father and his girlfriend pitched up out of the blue and simply moved into his small flat. As a result, the flat was overcrowded and they were evicted so that he ended up on the streets too.

Did God plan it this way? Was Pietie also God’s idea?

Yes! God also called Pietie to be his child and He wants to use Pietie too. God definitely did not intend for Pietie’s parents to just abandon him like that, in a way throwing him to the wolves and for anyone who was prepared to do so to pick him up. God certainly did not intend for his life to be such a mess.

That was the result of people’s poor decisions that were most probably driven by the own self. God did not change his plan: Pietie is still called! God wants to use him. When he struggles to say no to drugs and sometimes fail, God still wants to use him. Even though the world may change and people may mess up the road we’re travelling on, God’s plan for us will never change.

This is true for each of us. It doesn’t matter where life takes you or what road you’re on today, God has a plan with your life. God wants to use you right where you are. Through you, God wants to make a difference in the lives of the people around you. Do you hear what I’m saying? Yes, you, with all your weaknesses. You, with all your faults and shortcomings.  God’s plan is for you to do something right there.

You must realise that you are an idea in the mind of the Almighty God and that He wants to use you. When you start step-by-step to do something, you change. Then you realise that the task that God has given you is an amazing privilege! And slowly but surely you start doing more and more, knowing that through the grace and power of the Holy Spirit God’s idea is taking root in the world because you are ready to be used by Him.

The other day I received this by e-mail:

Noah was a drunk
Abraham was too old
Isaac was a daydreamer
Jacob was a liar
Leah was ugly
Joseph was abused
Moses had a stuttering problem
Gideon was afraid
Samson had long hair and was a womanizer
Rahab was a prostitute
David had an affair and was a murderer
Elijah was suicidal
Isaiah preached naked
Jonah ran from God
Naomi was a widow
Job went bankrupt
Peter denied Christ
The Disciples fell asleep while praying
Martha worried about everything
The Samaritan woman was divorced, more than once
Zaccheus was too small
Paul was too religious
Timothy had an ulcer..
AND Lazarus was dead!

And you?

Scripture

1 Thessalonians 2:1-4

Reflection

Do you believe that God has called you?

Do you believe that God wants to use you?

How?

Prayer

Father, You have called me too so that I can believe in You and live according to your will for my life. Thank you for the privilege to serve You. Please help to be obedient and useful. I ask this in Jesus’ Name. Amen.