God’s Strength in Our Weakness

When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power.

God does not need the eloquent or the brilliantly articulate. His power is made evident in the weak and the halting. His strength is made more obvious in the broken places. Those with power of tongue and quickness of thought and brightness of personality may be personally appealing, but Paul’s desire is that his audience sees Christ and is persuaded by the Holy Spirit; that God be seen and man be invisible. God’s power uses the David Rings of the world to reach the lost for Christ.

The abilities of man and the perceived abilities of man are like a fog. They’re without substance apart from God. But the abilities of God are complete and capable in all things.

Disappointments about speaking or lack of self confidence are evidence of preparation for God’s use. We cannot be used when we are filled with self. We are not proper vessels if we think that we are the contents, too. The pot that thinks it is beautiful has little utility because it does not want to get dirty, or wet, or used. The pot that thinks that all that fills it is lovely, is anxious to serve, to be filled, to be used in whatever way best serves its owner. That is a valuable pot.

Do we need to worry that we are not the most eloquent or most articulate? Consider the protests of Moses.
Exodus 4:10-12 Moses said to the LORD, "O Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue." The LORD said to him, "Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, the LORD? Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say."
These are the lessons of being a believer, walking by faith and not by sight. It is not what you see that gives you faith, it is what you believe. It is not what you have done that describes your potential, it is what you have not yet done. It is not who you are that describes your life, it is who you are in God’s hands.
It is not even what you have already done, because God cannot use people who feel they are capable apart from him.