26For consider your calling, brothers:(A) not many of you were wise according to worldly standards,[a] not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. 27But(B) God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise;(C) God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; 28God chose what is low and despised in the world, even(D) things that are not, to(E) bring to nothing things that are, 29so(F) that no human being[b] might boast in the presence of God. 30And because of him[c] you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us(G) wisdom from God,(H) righteousness and(I) sanctification and(J) redemption, 31so that, as it is written,(K) "Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord."
I read this first passage and it was a huge encouragement to me. To me it said, "God doesn't care about how much you know, how strong you think you are, or how popular you are... God still wants you." What an ecouragement! Just look at some of the lines... "God chose what is foolish [...] to shame the wise." or "God chose what is weak to shame the strong." What I got from that is that God CAN and WILL use you... IF you let him. God can do so many great things with so many people that wouldn't be qualified as "great" by our society. God will use you so be available for him!
The verse right before this one also rattled me. It was nothing theologically mind-boggling, but it struck me instantly when I read it. Verse 25 says:
"For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength."
As I was reading it, I was thinking, "Is this possible? God's foolishness? God's weakness? Does he have those? But really, that's not the purpose of this verse. To me, it's a verse that puts me in my place. Sometimes I think about how good i'm doing or how I've been consistent in my reading, but then after reading this verse, I don't measure up. The strongest I will ever be is not even close to God's lowest weakness. No matter what I do, I will never measure up to God's worst weakness. Now you have to be careful not to be discouraged because it seems like we can never live up to God, but I think we can take it as a challenge to at least try. We're never going to be perfect, but why not try to be?
Hope that made sense. Have a great day!
LU vs. #24 Clemson: 22-5 in the 1st half. Oh dear. LET'S GO LIBERTY!!!
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