God chooses the weak and those who realize that they are “Zeroes” -Zac PoonenIn 1 Corinthians 3:5, Paul asks the question “Whatthen is Apollos and what is Paul?”. We would reply thatPaul was a mighty apostle of the Lord, who had raisedthe dead, established many churches, and evenwritten Scripture. But he says of himself, “What isPaul? A SERVANT”. That was his opinion of himselfuntil the end of his life. No wonder Paul never fell by thewayside.The moment we begin to think of ourselves asanything other than servants of others, we have begunto backslide.Paul says further, “I planted, Apollos watered”. Which ofthe two is greater? The one who plants - who goes asa pioneer to an unreached area and does a work forGod where nothing existed before? Or the one whocomes along later and waters the plant through theteaching of God’s Word and encouragement, andbuilds the believers into a Body? The answer is“Neither”. Both are “nothing” - says Paul (v.7). Both arezeroes. Only God - Who caused the plant to grow - iseverything.Paul considered himself a zero until the end of his life.And so God could use him till the end of his life. Godwas everything to Paul.The Lord needed a donkey once to speak to Balaam.He needed a donkey at another time to ride intoJerusalem. And He has need of donkeys even today forHis purposes. Who are we then? Just donkeys whomthe Lord has picked up, to speak through, or to ride on.Wherever brothers are willing to be nothing so that Godmight be everything there will never be any competitionamong them as to who is considered to be the mostspiritual or the greatest etc.Whenever a person tries to project himself as theleader of a group, God will put him on the shelf. It istrue that every church must have leaders. But theleader is someone whom God selects.And if God gives another brother the grace to berecognised by the others as their leader, we should bequick to humble ourselves and accept that fact. Ifhowever, we become jealous of his ministry, or covethis position, we will become agents of Satan whohinder the building of the Body of Christ in our locality.God in His sovereignty knows who is the best personto lead any church. And He doesn’t look for the cleverand the intelligent. He chooses those who are weakand broken and those who realize that they arezeroes. Have we realized that?
