You’re Qualified to Serve God
By Rick Warren
“Give yourselves completely to God—every part of you—for you are back from death and you want to be tools in the hands of God, to be used for his good purposes.” Romans 6:13 (TLB)
There is no greater joy than to be used by God for a purpose bigger than yourself. Nothing compares to that feeling you get the moment you realize, “This is it! This is why I’m alive. I get it now.”
If you’ve never had this feeling, you’re missing out. The purpose of life isn’t to get an education, get a job, make money, and retire before you die. Your life is far more significant than your career. You were made for eternal purposes.
The Bible says, “Give yourselves completely to God—every part of you—for you are back from death and you want to be tools in the hands of God, to be used for his good purposes” (Romans 6:13 TLB).
The problem is, many people secretly fear that God could never use them. Some people feel disqualified because of their past sins and mistakes. Others feel unqualified because they don’t feel like they have the right education, talents, or background.
Maybe you feel one of those two ways—disqualified or unqualified. But you only have to look at the life of the Apostle Paul to know that God wants to use you in ways you can’t even imagine.
Nobody in history has been used by God more than Paul. Paul almost single-handedly spread Christianity all over the Roman Empire. He planted churches everywhere. He wrote about half of the New Testament. He lived with purpose to please God.
But do you know what Paul was doing before he became a preacher, a pastor, and a church planter? He was an anti-Christian crusader. He went from village to village persecuting Christians, having them thrown into prison. Paul was the exact opposite of someone you’d think God could use.
Paul wrote, “You know what I was like . . . how I violently persecuted God’s church. I did my best to destroy it. But even before I was born, God chose me and called me by his marvelous grace” (Galatians 1:13, 15 NLT).
Your past does not preclude your future. Your past is past. It doesn’t disqualify you from being used by God. The same is true with the kinds of opportunities you’ve had or didn’t have. They don’t make you unqualified. God chose you and called you, and he wants to use you today because of “his marvelous grace.”
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This devotional © 2018 by Rick Warren. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
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