LISTEN ONLINEJames Morris was once described as “an illiterate but warm-hearted layman,” but God used him to draw Augustus Toplady to saving faith in Jesus Christ. Toplady, the eighteenth-century author of the timeless hymn “Rock of Ages”, described hearing Morris preach: “Strange that I . . . should be brought nigh unto God . . . amidst a handful of God’s people met together in a barn, and under the ministry of one who could hardly spell his name. Surely this is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvellous.”
Indeed, God does marvellous things in unlikely places and through those we may rank as seemingly unqualified or ordinary. In 1 Corinthians 1, Paul reminded believers in Jesus that they were an unimpressive lot. “Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth” (1 Corinthians 1:26). Though the Corinthian believers were quite ordinary, by God’s grace they weren’t lacking in giftedness and usefulness (see v. 7). And God—who knows how to put boasters in their place ( vv. 27–29)—was at work among them and through them.
Do you see yourself as plain, ordinary or even less than enough? If you have Jesus and are willing to be used by Him, you have enough. May your heart’s prayer be, “God, use me!”