ORDINARY PEOPLE AND AN EXTRAORDINARY GOD

Now it happened, when they entered, he (Samuel)looked at Eliab and thought, “Surely the anointed of Yahweh is before Him.” 

1 Samuel 16:6

In 1812, America’s first foreign missionaries set sail for India, Adoniram and Ann Judson. That same year, Commodore Perry defeated an entire British naval squadron on Lake Erie. People in the U.S. knew about Oliver Hazard Perry, but not Adoniram and Ann Judson. When the Judsons ended up in Burma (Myanmar) there was not one known Christian in that land of millions of people. But God knew about them and through them brought hundreds of thousands of souls to the Savior.

So it was with David, son of Jesse. He was a nobody in a nation of God’s people. Even the prophet Samuel didn’t think that David was the Lord’s anointed (1 Samuel 16:6). Samuel had to finally admit that “God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but Yahweh looks at the heart.” In the end, God’s choice and wisdom were vindicated as Acts 13:22 reads: “I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after My heart, who will do all My will.” God specializes in taking ordinary people and transforming them into catalysts for change in His eternal plan.

So, brethren, do you think that you are a nobody? Stop thinking about yourself and think about the God who transforms people into choice instruments of His eternal purpose to accomplish His good, acceptable and perfect will. On April 12, 1850, at the age of 62, Adoniram Judson died. He had spent 38 years in Burma planting churches. Sometime after his death, a government survey recorded 210,000 Christians; one out of every 58 Burmans! Judson was a nobody. But God transformed him into a force mightier than the spiritual darkness of Burma. You may think that you are simply an ordinary person, but if you, like King David and Adoniram Judson are willing to commit your life to the Lord Jesus Christ, then watch what God will do in and through you.

Ike Graham