May 31, 2023
We all are interested in finding the highest and best use of our lives. Books are written, and seminars attended to try to learn our niche—what we can do to maximize our lives.
But there is only One who understands your true destiny. And you might be surprised at His evaluation. Tragically, many never encounter nor consult Him and miss their Divinely-ordained purpose.
A BLIND MAN
Jesus passed by a man with a disability that had shaped his entire life, and this exchange happened with His disciples.
As He passed by, He saw a man blind from birth. And His disciples asked Him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind?” Jesus answered, “It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents; but it was so that the works of God might be displayed in him. (John 9:1-3)
The fascinating thing about this encounter is that Christ interpreted the man’s blindness in ways completely contrary to anything the world would say. He didn’t see blindness as a “handicap” but as the God-appointed means that this precious man—created in God’s image—would find and fulfill his destiny.
The Bible is the most powerful and most-read book in human history (and always will be). There are 260 chapters in the New Testament, yet this whole chapter (John 9) is devoted to a brief encounter this blind man had with Jesus that will forever teach us. This makes this an important chapter and a very important man.
Jesus healed the man. This enraged the enemies of Jesus (who were supposed Bible scholars), and this blind man ended up teaching the teachers. Read the rest of the chapter, and you will be forever blessed and instructed by what happened. Think of the thousands of people Jesus encountered, yet this one man glorified God in ways that will forever be celebrated, and it was all because of his infirmity. His weakness was not a hindrance to his usefulness but the pathway.
WHAT’S THE POINT?
Don’t underestimate our paradoxical God. He takes things that others disregard and uses them for His glory. His opinion of you and what some would call your weaknesses are the very places where your destiny may lie. (Read that sentence again slowly and let it penetrate your soul.)
Paul discovered this. His greatest weakness forced him to rely upon God’s strength. He asked God to remove his “thorn in the flesh” three times but finally embraced God’s sovereign plan and entered whole new dimensions of faith. He came to glory in his weakness because when he was weak, God manifested His strength through these infirmities (2 Corinthians 12).
God was MORE glorified through Paul’s weakness than all of his supposed strengths. His awards and earthly accomplishments pale in comparison to how God used Paul’s weaknesses.
God knows what He’s about with you. Settle the issue that you desire to live to glorify God, and He will take you places you never dreamed of, even in your weakness.
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