Qualified!

To qualify. To be made worthy of the job, certified in the eyes of God, and before man. In order to preach the Good News, to reach the lost, to explain the Truth.

It is not as you see it.

Because the great qualification is not in becoming qualified, but in becoming unqualified. Unqualified in your own eyes.

And your tears will do it. Your humiliation will do it. Your being brought low will do it. Only then. Where humility leads you forward in complete dependence on Christ. Where your un-qualified record and shameful history are the exact places where God saved you, thus qualifying you for His kingdom. Only then. Only there.

Will the Good News be preached. By you.

Only then.

But when you look at all that you can offer. When you note what it is you have to benefit others. When you see your every talent and gift as the means to make you valuable. And your eyes drift there.

You are stepping out of grace. Period.

And it is all up to you, now.

When Christ Jesus was the One who first saved you. So, when your focus is off of Christ and Him crucified, then your justification, your sanctification. Your salvation. Is all up to you.

As though you are what qualifies you. And in that moment, apart from grace, you are on your own. It is up to you. So why do we look to our own qualifications? Why do we drift from Christ?

Because there’s a deeper need there. A deeper desire there that drives your every move, your every decision, your every motive. Even your motive to preach the Gospel, your motive to save the lost. It is driven there, by that need, that deep, deep need. To be qualified, approved as acceptable. For we so want to qualify. We so want to be made right and acceptable. We so want to be approved where we are, with what we have, as we are.

It’s true.

But from there, the great thrust to speak, to share of the Good News. The great drive to continue on. The great purpose and reason. That you have to proclaim the Truth. You must know, it is of God, and it is up to God. Alone. Always.

Because none of us are qualified to do so.

No, no one is qualified. Not one of us. To serve the LORD, to preach the Good News. None of us measure up to meet the requirements, to fully satisfy God, apart from Him. Apart from our first being brought low.

Yes.

“The LORD preserves the simple; when I was brought low, he saved me.” - Psalm 116:6

And there, where the saving happens, where the lifting up and redeeming happens, is where all of us who have been saved, are qualified, certified, stamped with approval. Justified, sanctified, and saved! Before God Almighty. Because of God Almighty!

Every one of us. Qualified to preach the Good News!

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“But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere.” - 2 Corinthians 2:14