Written by,
Kyle Eaton
With the help of the Holy Spirit
And the word of God
With the help of the Holy Spirit
And the word of God
Have you ever been to a track meet or watched the Olympics? If so, You may have noticed that at the beginning of every running meet the contestant warms up, stretches and assumes a position at the starting line with their hands on the ground. They put one foot before the other raise their “Caboose” up in the air with two things in mind. One is getting the best jump they possibly can. Second, Is getting first place ribbon or a gold metal. Runners often try and anticipate the blast being fired from the gun and sometimes over anticipate it. This becomes a foul! Just like any other sports, you are only allowed a certain amount of fouls before you are out of the game or competition! This brings up my point… As Christians some of us maybe feel qualified. Qualified to be a mentor, qualified to be a public speaker or maybe even a minister, qualified to be lots of things. Or, Maybe some of us feel unqualified! Maybe we lack the confidence to do lots of things other people have such an easy time doing. Maybe you have a hard time forcing yourself to do something out of your comfort zone. Then there is “disqualified ”. Have you ever been disqualified? Have you ever fouled out in a basketball game or jumpstarted at a track meet too many times? If you have you know the feeling. If you haven’t, you feel like you let your team down, you let your parents down, or you let yourself down. Being disqualified is a terrible feeling. God uses Qualifications, un-qualifications and even disqualifications to his advantage. Fist off; let me say that no one not even your minister or mine that is “Qualified” to get into heaven!
“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them”. Ephesians 2-8-10. Being qualified to do something doesn’t mean you are best suited for the job or task. The opposite goes for being unqualified. Someone may say or think your unqualified but it is truly up to God to make that decision. No one and I mean no one gets a promotion or pay raise on your own! God decides who is best suited and who can handle things like money and power. Take a minute and think of the story of when Samuel was looking for a new king. God sent him to Jesse because he had seven sons and he told him one would be the new king. After Samuel had met all of the sons Jesse brought him he asked, "Are these all the sons you have?" He asked this because he knew that none of these were the one God had told him about!
Jesse replied, "There is still the youngest David, but he is tending the sheep”. Then Samuel said, "Send for him; we will not sit down until he arrives." Jesse and his sons found David to be un-qualified! In fact, Not only was he un-qualified in the eyes of his family but he also was a shepherd. In these days a shepherd had the lowest stature. In fact, slaves were used as shepherds in this day and age. So when Samuel found out about this he sent for David and said, “We will not sit down until he arrives”….. Did you get that? He said he would not even sit until he arrives! I’m sure Samuel was angry at this point because he asked for all of Jesse’s son's to be there and Jesse ignored the request. So Jesse sent someone and had him brought in from the field. Can you imagine how David must have felt when a messenger came and told him the news? Do you think he dropped everything and came running? He probably asked something like…. “What about the sheep?” In this exciting moment I really believe he was probably worried about the sheep. That’s just the kind of young man David was! Besides, he was unqualified in his father and brothers eyes, right?
The Lord then said to Samuel, "Rise and anoint him; he is the one." His father and brothers jaws probably dropped! Even though the brothers had king like qualities and the town people thought they were great the Lord didn’t want any of them. God had one person in mind and that was David. David probably lacked confidence he probably felt “unqualified” because of the treatment from his father and brothers but God knew what David had in his heart. Even though the sons of Jesse may have thought they were more than qualified God knew who was the best suit! He was described as “Ruddy, with a fine appearance and handsome features”. David was probably mocked and made fun of. I can almost even hear his brothers making fun of him as he arrived. “Oh here he is the new king!!! Just look at him he is only a tiny young shepherd! Oh what a great king he would make ha ha ….yah right! But it didn’t matter what his brothers thought or what his own father even thought. God had created David for this exact moment in time he molded him like a potter molds his clay. God has molded each and every one of us to his liking. The thing we all need to realize and take from the story of David is that we aren’t always qualified for the things that we may think we are. We might have people putting us down telling us we are unqualified. Or, we could have been disqualified or had something that we really wanted not work out but God has something better in mind. The thing about it is “Qualified - Unqualified or Disqualified, They can all be used for the glory of God!”
