God uses the foolish

Scripture:

Amos 7:14-15

     But Amos replied, “I’m not a professional prophet, and I was never trained to be one. I’m just a shepherd, and I take care of sycamore-fig trees. But the Lord called me away from my flock and told me, ‘Go and prophesy to my people in Israel'.

Observation:

I just read the first 7 chapters of Amos, and it is nothing but judgment after judgment against people of different nations. God was sick of the sin of his own people, and the surrounding nations. It must have been a difficult job to be a prophet that always had bad news. But when Amaziah the priest told Amos to go prophecy somewhere else, Amos explains that he was never trained as a prophet, he was trained to watch over sheep and sycamore-fig trees. It was the Lord that called him.

Application:

Sometimes God uses the least qualified people to do the most important jobs. It's all over the Bible, and the reason God does this is so that he gets all the glory. Sometimes I think about the work that God is calling me to do, which is to tell people about Jesus, and I think about my lack of education and experience. I think about all of my shortcomings and the condition of the people God has called me to witness to. I have to remind myself that it's Gods' work and he can use my foolishness if he wants to.

1 Corinthians 1:21

Since God in his wisdom saw to it that the world would never know him through human wisdom, he has used our foolish preaching to save those who believe.

1 Corinthians 1:27

Instead, God chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise.

Prayer:

Dear Lord, thank you for using us. Thank you for allowing us to take part in your work, and you are gracious enough to even reward us someday. Thank you for the work you did on the cross, thank you for preparing a place for me. Help me to keep my thoughts on things that are eternal and not temporal. In Jesus name, Amen!