“If only I was a bit more like brother `X’ then I could do great things like he does. But I am just me” – ie, so don’t expect great things from me.
This is not only using comparison to camouflage a sinful heart full of fear, or indolence, etc. It is also illogical nonsense. I say illogical for it assumes firstly that they are different to you, and secondly it is that difference that makes the difference.
What we learn from Elijah is that he was no different than us ‘ordinary man’ — a man “with a nature like ours” (James 5:17); and that what really made the difference was God’s grace.
When we say we cannot do something that other believers in the past or around us are doing we are failing to realize why it is that these others were able to do it, and we are failing to give God the glory that is His due for enabling them to do it.
Paul got it right when he said with reference to contentment with lack as well as plenty, “I can do all things because of Christ who strengthens me” (Phil 4:13).
Do you face a challenge at work or school? Is there a burden you are being called to carry? Is there an area of your life you are being called to get right and keep right before God? Is there a Christian discipline like praying, Bible reading, witnessing or even worship that you struggle to keep active? Is there an area of ministry God is calling you to be a part of — but in any or all of which you feel total inadequacy? The answer remains Christ.
Today we look at Elijah the man of God … and what do we see? A man like you and me, an ordinary man, but one who believed in and loved God, and whom God blessed and used mightily.
May God bless this to encourage us as ‘ordinary’ believers, but also to in turn become a blessing to other ‘ordinary’ believers like you and me.