While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, "Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them." So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands of them and sent them off. -Acts 13:2-3

Right now Gateway is reading through the book of Acts as a church and going through a series of messages on it. These two verses really struck me today. "Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them." Wow. It is so easy to get caught up in that word "called." Am I really called to this or that, or do I just think that it fits my skillset well? How do we know when we are truly called to something?

I think this passage is awesome because their calling comes directly from the holy spirit. They receive this calling and then they move right away. They go out and simply tell their story and the story of the people of God. How often don't I (possibly we), think that in order for God to use us we have to be some sort of spiritual giants who have all the right answers before we can take a step to telling others anything about the gospel. The beauty in all of this is that Christ wants to use me--he wants to use us-- where we are right now. In our weakness we are made strong.
2 Cor. 9-10 says "My gace is sufficient for you , for my POWER is made perfect in weakness. Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I a stong.

We don't need to be perfect people that are able to say the perfect things at the perfect time. If that were the case, we would have no need for Christ's sacrifice and the power of the spirit. As it is, Christ works through our weakness because our weaknesses force us to be dependent on him through the power of the spirit. We need to rejoice in our weaknesses as Paul says, for it is there that we meet God. We don't need to have it all together to be used by him, but we do need to be willing to be used. I pray that we are all able to accept the gift of grace that God has given us. However, after realizing the power of His grace, I pray that we would embrace our weaknesses and share openly and boldly with the hurting world around us.