God Can Use Whatever And Whomever He Wants

As a young Christian, I remember learning that God has things for each of us to accomplish for His kingdom and for His glory. What if we accidentally miss it? Or worse, what if we know what He wants us to do and we simply refuse to do it? God will find someone else to do the things that accomplish His good purposes. 

 

The free will that God gives us is the gift of a loving Father who desires that His children love and follow after Him willingly, not by force or coercion. God knew that man would use free will to listen to Satan. God, therefore, gave us the additional gift of Jesus Christ to restore ourselves by way of His sacrifice. It is our choice because we have free will but free will is a slippery fish. We can do whatever we want, however we cannot control the consequences of those choices. We can follow God, not do what He asks us to do, and not get the joy of being part of His beautiful, perfect plan. However, it bears repeating: God will find someone else to do the things that accomplish His good purposes.  

 

In the Bible, Queen Esther is afraid to appear before her husband, the king, to try to save her people who are about to be slaughtered. Her uncle Mordecai tells her, “. . . Do not think that because you are in the king’s house you alone of all the Jews will escape. For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:13-14 NIV) Mordecai knows enough about God to confidently tell his niece that God will save His people – even if she refuses to be the person who helps make that happen.

 God has a plan for everything! Because He is all-knowing, all powerful, and everywhere, He can work out His plan for humanity in any number of ways. Knowing the past, present and future gives Him the distinct advantage of allowing us, His children, to be a part of His wonderfully perfect plan OR He can, and will, use another means or another person, if we don’t step up. That other means can come from anywhere and anyone. It can be a miraculous occurrence within nature (parting of the Red Sea) or an evil person who does not know or follow Him. He can use whatever and whomever He wants.

When God’s people were slaughtered by Kings Nebuchadnezzar’s armies, their temples burned and destroyed, and their treasures taken, a remnant of them were taken captive to Babylon. However, “In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the Lord spoken by Jeremiah, the Lord moved the heart of Cyrus king of Persia to make a proclamation throughout his realm and to put it in writing . . .” (Ezra 1:1 NIV) God turns the heart of a pagan king to release His people from captivity and to restore His house of worship.

God is unshakably sovereign. He can and will use whatever He wants to accomplish His will for His people and for His glory. Proverbs puts it this way, “The king’s heart is like channels of water in the hand of the Lord; he directs it wherever he wants.” (Proverbs 21:1 CEB)

 THAT’S the mighty God we serve! I don’t want to miss a thing He has for me to do.

Sylvia Gaston

Pastor of Connection and Development