God gives us all natural talents and gifts. People are always looking for their niche, how they can use their talents, smarts, gifts to excel in life or for the glory of God. It becomes very easy to grow confident in our own abilities.
I just got done studying the book of Numbers for the Bible History class I am teaching at my Homeschool group. It has left me very struck with the lack of importance God places in our talents, money, service, etc, as far as furthering His kingdom. In fact all of these areas whether we are the singers, the preachers, the teachers, the guitar player, the pianist, the people working the the behind the scene details are gifts, and nothing more. The ability to do these things is a chance God has given us to be blessed by serving and glorifying Him. We aren't making the Worship or the Kingdom better, He is. At any moment, when our hearts and heads become filled with pride, God can turn from using us and use someone else, and that person can be used better & greater than we were before them!
Look at the leader God choose for His people, Israel. He could have chosen the great speaker, Aaron. Or a great singer, like Miriam. He could have chosen a physically strong person who would have made the people feel safe to walk behind them. Who did God choose as His leader? He didn't choose the strongest, the speaker, the singer, He chose Moses, the meekest. Numbers 12:3 "Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth."
After completing my study over the book of Numbers, I have been left in contemplation. The people of Israel had seen God's great power! They had been delivered from Egypt by His great miracles, they had been fed by His very hand, they had walked through the wilderness without their clothes-shoes-or feet growing tired, they had seen God heal them from diseases, they had been given the law after awesome show of His power, at yet they had no faith in God's ability, they decided their actions by their own power. When it came time to go into Canaan they doubted their ability to defeat the strong Canaanites, rather than saying, We have no strength, we will have faith in God's ability to defeat the Canaanites. And the people failed.
Today, I think we are no different. We rely on our talents to grow the church, to make the teaching better, to preach a better sermon, to make the Worship service more exciting, and we also fail. If it hadn't been for Moses' meek petition in Numbers 14:13-19, God would have destroyed Israel and built a new nation(Numbers 14:12). In the end God didn't need Israel, he didn't choose Israel because of anything they had done, He just chose them, and blessed them! I hope that we will come to God with meek petition now, and we will turn away from the sin of pride in our church, putting our faith in God, thankful for a chance to obediently serve Him.
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