Ordinary People

by Brandy Webb

We have a Bible full of profound stories of faith, sin, renewal, miracles, forgiveness, and punishment, and many more lessons that apply to us today. The Bible gives us hope when we doubt, strength when we are afraid, faith to keep moving forward, love when we feel unloved, and more positive affirmations. What is totally awesome, though, is that most of these stories that encourage us are about normal everyday ordinary people like you and me.

For me it is encouraging to realize that God doesn’t need “super-humans” to do extraordinary things. In fact, God is known to call “the foolish things of the world to shame the wise,” “the weak things of the world to shame the strong,” “the lowly and despised things of the world, and the things that are not, to nullify the things that are” (1 Corinthians 1:27-28). He does this so that we can’t boast, because God doesn’t need us to be smart to make us wise. He does not need us to be sophisticated and educated to lead others. He can mold us and transform us from “ordinary people” into beautiful, faith-moving, God-fearing, extraordinary people.

We have witnesses that prove that God can do anything with anyone if He chooses to do so. Let’s look at some of these patriarchs of faith. Abraham laughed first when God said he was going to father a child in his old age (Genesis 17:17; Sarah laughs in Genesis 18:12). Abraham also lied twice about Sarah out of fear. Yet, he is known as a man of great faith because despite his mistakes, since he was just a normal human, he still walked and lived by faith.

Jacob was a deceiver, yet God still blesses him with fathering the twelve tribes of Israel. Joseph becomes a slave that ends up, through God, transforming into the second most powerful man of Egypt. Moses had a speech impediment, doubted God, and was a murderer and an exile. However, God still used him to lead Israel out of Egypt and towards the Promise Land. Peter denied Christ three times, yet He is known now as one of the greatest apostles. Then there is Paul who was totally transformed from a man named Saul who persecuted God’s people into a man of such profound faith and teachings that his letters make up most of our New Testament.

There are many more “ordinary people” that God used to do some very powerful things in the Bible, and He can do the same things through us when we walk in faith. Our stories have yet to be fully written, and there is no telling what God may do through us. So, when we read the Bible, we should feel inspired because we follow a God that can do the impossible with ordinary everyday people.

“Therefore let us also, seeing we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising its shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:1).