I recently heard someone say this, “God does not call the perfect – He perfects the called.” How profound it that! You see, sometimes we tend to think that to be used of God, we have to have it all together. We have to have the right background – the right education, the right connections, the right occupation, etc. We think that we have to be sinless and not have ever dealt with temptation. But that’s not how God works; He calls the imperfect and as we yield to Him, He molds and prepares us to do His perfect will. Even as He perfects us, we’ll never be perfect here on earth; but still we can be used to accomplish His perfect plan.
The fact of the matter is that, if perfection was a prerequisite to be used of God, our churches would be empty because, from the pulpit to the pew, there is no one who is perfect. I further state that, if perfection was required, the only Biblical characters we would ever read about would be the triune God – the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. But yet we have 66 books with stories of how our perfect God manifested Himself in the lives of His imperfect people.
You name the person in the Bible, we could see their shortcomings – from Adam and Eve, to Abraham, to Moses, to Rahab, to King David, the Apostle Paul and so on. In some cases these individuals have character flaws – for example, David’s sin with Bathsheba; in other cases they have short-comings – for example, Paul’s thorn in the flesh.
God does not ask us to be perfect; He just asks that we come to Him as we are. And when we do, He can do wonders through us. In Judges 6, we learn that Gideon was essentially a wimp; but when the angel of the Lord spoke to him, he calls him a “mighty warrior!” That’s the thing about God – He sees us as He sees us, not as we see ourselves. He knows our short-comings – physical or otherwise. But He’s not limited because of our perceived limits.
When He called Moses to deliver the children of Israel from bondage, in Exodus 4: 10, Moses said, “I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue.” But in verse 11-12 God said to him, “Who gave human beings their mouths? Who makes them deaf or mute? Who gives them sight or makes them blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.” In verse 13, Moses still replied, ”Please send someone else.”
Today we laud Moses as a mighty man of God. He led the children of Israel out of bondage; he wrote the first 5 books of the Bible; he is revered as one of the most significant characters in the Judeo-Christian world. This simple man who was “slow of speech and tongue” became a mighty man when he trusted in our mighty God.
So here is a question for you – do you believe that you cannot be used by God because of some short-coming? Because of some sin? Don’t let those issues cause you to embrace anything less than God’s best for you.
If you believe you have some short-coming or if you appear to lack the skill-set to do a task that God requires of you, talk to Him about it. He would never call you to do anything He has not already equipped you to do. Give yourself to Him fully; take Him at His Word and believe it shall be fulfilled and it will.
If you have sins that cause you to believe you are exempt from being used by Him, confess these sins with sincerity, receive His forgiveness and get back on track. In 1 John 1:9 we read, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and cleanse us of all unrighteousness.” As Christians, we might sin but we do not have to be controlled by it. When we walk with God, sin has no further reign over us because now we are controlled by the Holy Spirit.
In our journey with Him we will stumble but He is ever ready to forgive us and cleanse us of all that does not please Him. His grace is not a license to sin but we also recognize that when we do, we have an Advocate in heavenly places who will throw our sins into the sea of forgetfulness, never to be remembered anymore.
I hope that reading this has been an encouragement to you. Take comfort in the thought that nothing can separate us from God’s love and nothing can disqualify us from being used by Him. We do not need to be perfect – only obedient to Him; then He will do the rest.
So take heart, dear friends; we will not be perfected until we meet Him face to face in glory. Till then, let us run the race set before us, knowing that, as the Apostle Paul said in Philippians 1:6, “He who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it!”
Have a blessed day!
Rodrick Walters