All of us, as people of God, want to be effective in His work. We want to be great soul-winners and encouragers. We want to be bold proclaimers and great examples. We want to reach large audiences and teach them the word. But sometimes, we aren’t. We aren’t effective and we wonder why. I think one reason may be that we’ve accepted who we are and what we should do in the Kingdom, but we haven’t accepted who we aren’t.

Notice 1 Corinthians 1:26-28:

 For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, 

Here, we see that God chose the foolishness of preaching (v. 21) to reach lost souls because God doesn’t do things in conventional ways. He is the God who made Ezekiel literally eat a scroll. He made the sun stand still. He carried a man up to heaven on a chariot of fire. He doesn’t always do things the way we think He will. But that’s because His ways are higher, wiser, and He does things that will give Him the glory, and not the people on earth who are simply His instruments.

So who are you? Well, you’re an instrument. And if you’re striving to carry out God’s will in your life, you understand that. You’ve received the commission (Matt. 28:19-20) and now you’re acting it out in your life. But still, we don’t feel very effective at times. Why is that? Again I ask, have you thought of who you aren’t?

The Holy Spirit through Paul tells us exactly who we aren’t, right there in the verses above. We aren’t wise. We aren’t mighty. We aren’t noble. Instead, we are foolish. Weak. Base. Despised. Why? Verse 29 says, “that no flesh should glory in His presence.”

If you want to be an effective servant of God, you have to realize that it isn’t about you. Paul goes on in chapter 3 verse 5 to ask, “Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers through whom you believed, as the Lord gave to each one?” That’s the question we should be asking on a daily basis! Who then is Emily?! Who then am I?! I am only an instrument. And thanks be to God that I can be an instrument of His – the Almighty Jehovah God above! 

Chapter 3 verse 7 wraps it up nicely for us. There Paul writes, “So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase.” At the end (and beginning and middle) of the day, I am not anything. God, on the other hand, is everything. And if I want to be an effective servant of His, I have to accept who I’m not. Not wise. Not mighty. Not noble. Simply blessed. Counted worthy to be a worker for the True and Living God.