God loves to use ordinary folks!

Amos 7-9; Psalms 104; Titus 2

Scripture

12Then Amaziah told me, "Amos, take your visions and get out! Go back to Judah and earn your living there as a prophet. Don't do any more preaching at Bethel. The king worships here at our national temple." I answered: I'm not a prophet! And I wasn't trained to be a prophet. I am a shepherd, and I take care of fig trees. But the LORD told me to leave my herds and preach to the people of Israel. And here you are, telling me not to preach!

Observation

When God called Amos he was a simple shepherd that also took care of fig trees. He wasn’t educated. He didn’t have lots of speaking experience. But God chose him to speak out against the nation of Israel. It was not a popular job, especially not with King Jeroboam.

Throughout the Bible God takes plain ordinary men and women and does extraordinary things through them. In the Old Testament you could not get any more plain and ordinary than a shepherd. The profession was considered the lowest of the lowest by the people of that day. Yet look at how many “Shepherds” God called out for his service: Abraham, Moses, David, Amos, to just name a few. In the New Testament God called out lots of ordinary folks like fisherman and tax collectors (both probably smelled pretty bad to the people around them)!

Application

There is no limit to what God can do through someone like you and me if we will just say “Yes” to Him. He is in the business of making the ordinary … extraordinary, but He can only do it with folks that have a willing heart! God wants to use ordinary us in the place where we work and live to do extraordinary things.



Prayer

Heavenly Father, thank you for making me who I am. Thank you for allowing me to serve you. Thank you for loving me in spite of all my defects. Help me to be willing today to be used by you to touch someone else’s life and if you do, that would make this ordinary day extraordinary!



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