Imagine with me a group of people in a small town, who desperately want to succeed in their vocations and the way they provide for their families. These people have grown up in church, but it's unclear whether they have had a genuine relationship with God. Christianity seemed to work for them when they were children (when families were poor), but they haven't translated their Christian background into their everyday working world as young adults.
Try to guess this verse. It's widely quoted by Christians and non-Christians alike, and seen as a universal truth by anyone who has observed the rise and fall of people. It describes a condition that always leads to destruction—to a fall. The last word of the verse, in fact, is "fall." It's often quoted in a five-word abbreviated version of the actual verse—"Pride comes before a fall."
The foundation stone for discussing our subject is that God delights to use anyone: boy or girl, man or woman, who makes himself or herself available to Him. That's good news for everyone!
A Person God Could Not Use
Another Look at the Lions' Den
A Minister in the Making
The Man Who Brought the House Down on Himself
When I see lives that are less than promising, I wonder what went wrong, and the follow-up is, "What would have happened if...?" We have the mistaken idea that if family life and education were ideal, there would be no problems, or at least small ones. Most people believe that starting right makes things right, but this is not always true. Let me explain further by looking at the life of Solomon.
I would really like to meet a person who could say the following; “I have walked perfectly with my God; I have never failed in my understanding of His plan, and my motives have always been completely pure.”
Most of us couldn't say that, could we? In fact, only Jesus could. Our lives at this point are not perfect reflections of our God. We're growing and being conformed more and more to Christ's likeness each day, but only when we stand in eternity will we perfectly mirror our Lord--1 Cor. 13:12; Rom. 8:29, etc. If that's the case, then it's going to be a common problem for all of us as believers, to live in the tension of not having our act totally together while attempting to walk with a holy and perfect God.