Something from Nothing
“But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him.”
Today’s Text: 1 Corinthians 1:26-31 (Living Life Daily Devotional)
And yet we continue to boast in our hearts. The ways of God are mysterious. Partly because (maybe) He thwarts the pride and arrogance of humanity. We continue to do ministry based on human strategies, human reasoning, and human control, and we might see a certain growth because of it. And so we boast in our hearts that it was because of me-myself-and-I.
The discipline that every pastor, minister, and servant needs to exercise is to battle that sinful tendency.
For me, that battle begins with lingering in the word—doing my best to absorb the fullness of what the Lord is trying to communicate to us.
Our reality is this: God chose “the things that are not—to nullify the things that are.” Why? So that no one may boast before Him.
We all have an image in our hearts and minds of powerful, influential, successful people. I remember one time, a friend was telling me about seeing one of the Kennedy’s on an airplane. My friend noted how powerful he looked. Another friend of mine used to do a summer preaching circuit with Rick Warren. My friend told me that Rick Warren just commanded every room he walked into with his presence.
People fall for the cult of personality all the time, because we all (deep down) want to be worshiped, on the one hand, and we all yearn for idols, on the other.
It’s sick. It’s the human condition. It’s sin.
Maybe that is why God insists that we make no image of Him—so that we can be reminded that our invisible God, who on the surface seems like nothing, could destroy and recreate this universe according to His will.
The reality is this: God is not the nothing. We are. But God has made us something according to His will and according to His grace, so that no matter what we do with all the skills and talents and abilities that God has given to us, all boasting must be directed at Him. Because we are—every one of us—nothing apart from God.
It is from that starting point that our discipleship begins. It is from that starting point that we learn to love one another. It is from that starting point that we work to seek and to save the lost.
Father, You are Everything. We are not. You are Reality. We are not. But by Your love and Your sovereign grace, You have created us in Your image to experience goodness, love, joy, blessing, shalom. Forgive me whenever I pursue life on my own terms. Thank You for Your mercy, though. Where would I be without it. But show us Your power, and fill us with Your Spirit, so that we may boast and boast and boast in You alone. In Jesus’s name. Amen.
