1 Corinthians 1:25 “For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.” This episode talks about how we are all called to something and it would be great if we could embrace that calling without questioning God and His call on our life. Also, we shouldn't question the call of other's as well. God knows what He is doing much more than we do. Trust Him! Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
God’s Foolishness Is Wiser Than Human Wisdom
1 Corinthians 1:25 “For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.”
When I read this verse this morning I thought it was very interesting and so very true. It is something I don’t thing we often think about. It is one of those things that when you hear it, you know it is true, but it might never have occurred to you. I think it is pretty obvious that God is wiser than we are and we know he is stronger than us. It would not be hard to find evidence to support this and yet I still don’t know if I would have thought of it like this before. His foolishness is wiser than human wisdom and his weakness is stronger than human strength. When I find a verse to use, I try to look at the verses around it to get the context and too see what else God wants to tell us. The verses right after this one are pretty good too.
1 Corinthians 1:26-31 says, “Consider your own call, brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are, so that no one might boast in the presence of God. He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, in order that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” One of my favorite verses/sayings is that God’s ways are higher than our ways and His thoughts greater than our thoughts. God does not think like we do and He does not do the things that we would do.
If we really need a prayer answered, or a healing to occur, who do we tend to ask first? I tend to ask my dad first, as I know he prays a lot and I feel his prayers are answered quickly. I also tend to ask the ladies in my prayer group because again, I feel their prayers are heard. Many would go to a priest first. We tend to go to the people that we think are “holier” than we are. When someone needs a healing, they tend to want a priest to pray over them as they are very “holy.” We want the best of the best as we know the stakes are high for some of our prayers. What I felt the holy Spirit tell me when I began this verse is that is not how the Lord thinks. Jesus did not come to earth and ask all the teachers, or the priests at the time to be his apostles. He was not looking for the best and the brightest. He came and called many who were considered foolish, outcasts, or weak to the rest of the world.
Some of us may feel we have a calling and then we start to think about all the ways we aren’t good enough to answer that call. We aren’t smart enough, we aren’t strong enough, we aren’t old enough, we aren’t young enough, we aren’t holy enough and so on. We list all the reasons why we can’t do the thing that God is calling us to do. Did you hear that last part, the thing God is calling you too. Why do we question our call when God is the one doing the calling? Don’t we know He is smarter than we are? If he says we are good enough, then we are good enough. If He says we aren’t too young, too old, to foolish, to sinful, then we aren’t. It’s crazy how if you asked us if God was wiser than we were we would say yes without any hesitation. Yet, when we question our worthiness of the call He has given us we are saying the exact opposite. We are saying that He must be wrong and that we know better than He does.
When we start to question our calling and when we start to think of all the ways we are not enough, we should stop and think about all those that came before us. Were they the smartest people around? Were they the most holiest people around? Were they the ones you would have chosen? St. Catherine of Sienna is a doctor of the church and yet when she was a child she had great difficulty learning to read and did not learn to write until she was an adult. There were plenty of religious leaders at the time that Jesus came and yet He did not call the religious leaders to be his disciples, he called every day normal people like you and me. He also called people like Matthew, who was a tax collector. That is not someone any of the other apostles would have chosen. God knows what He is doing. He has placed a call on each and every one of us and it is a call He chose specifically for us. It is perfectly suited for our strengths and weaknesses. He knows us better than we know ourselves. Trust in Him and his ability to know you and what you can and can’t do.
Right at the beginning of writing this episode I felt like the Holy Spirit was telling me that this is a two way street. He wants us to believe in our calling and also to believe in other’s calling as well. The same things I just said about your calling apply to others as well. Trust in the Lord’s ability to call others as well. Sometimes we may see a priest at the pulpit and we might thing they don’t seem the most qualified to be giving a sermon, or we see someone on the street talking about God and we might think they are not qualified to be talking about God. We might see our loved one volunteering at a soup kitchen and think they aren’t qualified, or a friend who wants to be in a healing ministry and yet you know they aren’t qualified. My question to you is, “who are we to judge their qualifications?” God gave them the calling, not us. Why do we think we know better than He does?
I felt like the Holy Spirit was telling us not to dismiss the answer to our prayers because it didn’t come in the package we thought it would. For instance, a young kid makes a profound comment and yet you blow it off because he is too young to know what he is talking about. A person in the line at the grocery store asks to pray for you and you say no because how powerful could her prayers be anyway. Someone offers to pray over you for healing and they are not a priest so you say no. God did not come to use the best of the best. Yes, those he used did become the best of the best, but that was only after they agreed to be used by God for whatever He called them too. The power of prayer, the wisdom, the strength that we have, that all comes from God. This is what the verse is trying to tell us when it says, “God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are, so that no one might boast in the presence of God.” God chose the ones that He chose because that way all would know that it was Him and not the person.
If someone that is not well educated, has not gone to fancy schools, has not studied theology and yet they can speak eloquently, wisely and authoritatively about the church and its teachings, that person can not boast in their own abilities as those abilities are through the power of God. If you want a greater example of this go back into the Old Testament and read Judges 7 about Gideon and His army. Gideon was severely outnumbered with his army of 30,000. However, God had Him send almost everyone home and just had him keep 300 men. He wanted to make sure the Isrealites knew it was God who was winning the war. If we rely on our own strength, wisdom and power, we would claim all the glory, that is our fallen, broken, nature. However, if we have no power, no strength and no ability, then we know it was all God who accomplished the impossible thing. All the glory goes right to God where it rightfully belongs!
The next time you need help, remember to turn to God first. Also remember that He can send help through anyone. Don’t judge the person or the way God decides to help you. Remember that God can use anyone at anytime for anything. They don’t have to already know how to do the thing, they don’t have to be full of natural wisdom or talent. One of my favorite sayings I ever heard is, “God doesn’t call the equipped, He equips the called.” If you say yes then God will give you all you need to succeed. The same is true for every person that He calls. When He calls you don’t worry if you are enough, He will give you all you need to be enough.
Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord, we know you are wiser than we are and stronger than we are. Help us not to forget it! Help us to lean into you and to trust that when you call us to something we don’t have to be afraid to say yes because you will be right there with us giving us all we need to succeed. Lord, help us to look at others in the same way. Help us to not judge others or to question their call. We love you Lord, you are amazing. I am seeing so many answered prayers around me and I am so grateful!! We ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen!
Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. If you would like to purchase an autographed copy of my book there are still some available on my website. I want to thank you all for your support and ask if you wouldn’t mind sharing my podcast or my book with just one person over the next week. It would really help me out. I look forward to meeting you here again tomorrow. Remember, Jesus loves you, and so do I! Have a blessed day!