“He will keep you strong to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God, who has called you into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful.” (1 Corinthians 1:9)
Did you ever pick teams for a football or basketball game or something? If you’re the one doing the picking – and you really care about winning the game – you pick the strongest players you can get first, right? You know you’ll get stuck with a few weaker players, and you’ll have to figure out how to keep them from making you lose.
Way too many people think God works the same way, that he stands in heaven picking those he wants on his “team” (in “fellowship with his Son”) based on how good or strong we are, but that’s exactly backwards.
God looks for people weak enough to know they can never do anything to earn a spot on God’s team – and then he gives us a spot and makes us strong enough to do exactly what he wants done.
God wants people who need him to be faithful, not people who are strong enough on their own to be perfectly faithful to him.
Think: Do you sometimes feel like you’re always trying to earn God’s approval by being strong or good or faithful? What’s wrong with that idea?
Pray: Thank God that he called you into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ and that he is faithful.
Do: Read what Paul wrote about our weakness and God’s strength in 1 Corinthians 1:18-31.