July 05, 2022
Daily Devotion:
"When God is at Work ... "
1 Samuel 9:21
New International Version
21 Saul answered, “But am I not a Benjamite, from the smallest tribe of Israel, and is not my clan the least of all the clans of the tribe of Benjamin? Why do you say such a thing to me?”
How many times have you heard a woman say, "I'm just a housewife"? Or perhaps a man say with a touch of embarrassment, "I'm currently unemployed"? Or maybe someone lament, "I'm a nobody! "Self-esteem is not a universally shared trait, nor is pride in one's station in life guaranteed for all. For every “high flier," there are many more common, ordinary folks in the world who don't have much to brag about. Of what use are they to anyone? To look at them, nothing in particular would suggest they are special. So maybe they are right. Maybe they are like Saul, a nobody among nobodies. But hang on! If they are a "nobody" like Saul, then they are a “nobody" that God could make a king! Or the mother of a king. Or an honored servant of a king.
If perhaps you can identify with Saul's hiding among the baggage when he is named as Israel's first king, take heart. He knew he was no more suited to being a king than the donkeys he had been chasing the day before. What he had not counted on, however, was God's power to transform him into an instrument God could use for his own purposes. Not surprisingly the process began with a change of heart. No, not Saul changing his heart, but God changing Saul's heart. And then there was that spirit of prophesying with which God miraculously empowered Saul. What a shock that must have been for a former "nobody"! While God never promised to make all “nobodies" kings, of this we can be certain: Nobody's a “nobody" when God is working in their life.
The question for all us ordinary folk is: How can I possibly be a "nobody" if the King himself has made me a child of the King!
