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REFLECTION

Silencing the noise and shedding the excess is the theme for our reflection. Silencing the noise means God regards boastful and self-reliant people as noisemakers, therefore, He does not have a place for them in His plans. Shedding excess is God’s way of appointing and using the people He needs from the masses to accomplish His purpose. In brief, silencing the noise and shedding the excess is God’s way of calling those whom He deems humble and fit for His purpose. God appointed Gideon to lead the Israelites to defeat the Midianites. To silence the boastful noise Israel will make in the future with their numerical strength and to shed off the excess number of the army, “The LORD said to Gideon, “You have too many men. I cannot deliver Midian into their hands, or Israel would boast against me, ‘My own strength has saved me.” (Judges 7:2). Consequently, out of thirty-two thousand soldiers, only three hundred were selected and used by God to defeat the Midianites.

Beloved in the Lord, we are mere vessels, tools or instruments in the hands of God which He uses to accomplish His purpose. We are not an end in ourselves or complete entities with the power to accomplish anything in our name. To boast of our achievement or victory is to take God’s glory and that is a sin. Boasting amounts to noise making which God will not hesitate to silence. In the parable of the rich fool, his noise of boasting after he had harvested his crops made God to silence him. He boastfully said, “I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’ (Luke 12:19) God said to him “‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ (Luke 12:20). We must give glory to God in all our endeavours and approach God with total humility even as we avail ourselves to be used for His glory. James reminds us that “God opposes the proud but shows favour to the humble.” (James 4:6) No matter who we are and regardless of our earthly achievements let us remain humble in the Lord. It is better to be given a voice in our humility than to be silenced in our noisy pride by God.

Dear friend, God may shed us as excess when He finds us unfit for His purpose. The LORD said to Gideon, “With the three hundred men that lapped I will save you and give the Midianites into your hands. Let all the others go home.” So Gideon sent the rest of the Israelites home but kept the three hundred, who took over the provisions and trumpets of the others. (Judges 7:7-8) In other words, let us be humble and faithful to the Lord at all times because we are replaceable in His plan and mission. It is a great honour to be called and used by God for His own purpose, therefore, whether you are a pastor, president, minister of state, member of parliament, chief, managing director, presbyter and so on, we are all replaceable or may be deemed to be an excess hence our redundancy or rejection. It is, for this reason, Paul admonishes us that “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. (Colossians 3:23-24) Whatever role you play in the house of God do it with humility and diligence so that you will be counted among the chosen and not the excesses. Let us be guided by Jesus’ reminder that “For many are invited, but few are chosen.” (Matthew 22:14). Shalom.

PRAYER

Dear Lord, we completely humble ourselves and rely on you for our sustenance and victory. We need the empowerment of the Holy Spirit to be found worthy and counted amount your chosen servants to be used for your glory. Amen.