Our Greatest Ability Is Our Availability

Devotional - John Clardy – 08/26/08

Romans 12:1     I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

My pastor often says, “God does not call the qualified, He qualifies the called!”

If we always waited to be worthy or perfect in our service to God, we would never do anything. 

We will fail at righteous living. We must try to live righteous anyway!

We will fall short of perfection. We must strive for perfection anyway!

We will be guilty of not practicing what we preach. We must preach the Truth anyway!

Let’s look at a sampling of the people God used:

Moses stuttered.

John Mark was a quitter.

Rahab was a prostitute.

Jacob was a liar.

David was an adulterer.

Solomon was too rich.

Abraham was too old.

David was too young.

Lazarus was dead.

Jesus was too poor.

Paul was a murderer. So was Moses. So was David.

Jonah ran from God.

Miriam was a gossip.

Gideon and Thomas both doubted.

Jeremiah was depressed and suicidal.

Elijah was burned out.

John the Baptist was a loudmouth.

Martha was a worry-wart.

Samson had long hair.

Noah got drunk.

            Moses had a short fuse. So did Peter and Paul.

How was God able to use such a motley crew of oddities and misfits?  Because in spite of all their flaws and after all of their failures, they were still available to God!

One of satan’s greatest weapons against us is trying to convince us that we have no right to serve God because of the failures and imperfections in our lives.  What we need to understand, is that the principles and promises of God are not based upon our performance. They are predicated upon the Word of God!  They are yea and amen!  Whatever we do or don’t do won’t change that!

We all have areas of weakness and have experienced failure at some level, but God still uses anyone who makes themselves available to God. That is our greatest ability – availability!