Ordinary People

Have you ever felt like that when it comes to following Christ, you just don’t have what it takes? I know that I have felt that a lot in my life. I grew up in a Christian home. I had parents who loved me and loved God. They wanted to make sure that I knew Him as I grew up. It was a wonderful childhood. I was blessed. However, even though I grew up in a Christian home and knew how much God loved me, sometimes I still felt like I just did not have what it took to follow him.

Part of my problem was thinking that I had to be perfect. Thinking I needed to get to a point where I would never mess up again. Knowing deep down that I would never be perfect made me feel like I was never going to be able to be the person I should be. As I’ve grown older I read scripture like 1 John where he writes to us telling us we have an advocate with the Father and if we walk in the light, his blood continues to cleanse us as we fail. Having a better understanding of that scripture has helped me so much in realizing that I can follow Jesus. I won’t be perfect but I don’t have to be.

Another problem I faced was reading in scripture about all these people of faith and seeing the amazing things they did. People like Paul and Peter come to mind for their great faith and action. You read through the book of Acts and see men and women that are living such great lives of faith. It sometimes made me feel as though I could never be like them in my walk with Christ. Like they were some sort of “Super” Christians. 

As I have grown older I have come to realize though, that pretty much everyone in the Bible was just an ordinary person before they met God. Peter was a fisherman. David was a shepherd. Mary was probably a teenage girl when she gave birth to Christ. Paul was a persecutor of the Church. The list could go on and on. These people were just ordinary people. Yet, God used them to do extraordinary things. What is so awesome about that thought is that God can do some extraordinary things with us as well if we will just allow him to. We don’t have to have anything special about us. God has used ordinary people to accomplish his will since the beginning of time. That gives me great comfort knowing He can use an ordinary person like me too.