Glad You're Here: A 5-Day Study by Craig Cooper and Walker HayesSample

It’s amazing how God can use anything to accomplish His purposes.

We see this all throughout the Bible. With Moses, God used a simple staff to perform miraculous signs and show His power, freeing the Israelites from Egyptian bondage (Ex. 4:1–5; 7:19; 8:5, 16; 14:16).

God delivered David from the hand of Goliath with a little sling and a stone (1 Sam. 17:40).

The modest offering of five barley loaves and two fish handed over freely from a boy was used by Jesus to feed a multitude of five thousand with leftovers to spare (John 6:1–14).

And there’s even a story in the Old Testament where God spoke through the mouth of a donkey (Num. 22:21–39)!

Now, if God can use a staff to perform miraculous signs and wonders, use a sling and a stone to save David, turn five barley loaves and two fish into enough food to feed thousands, and speak through the mouth of a donkey, He can use anything in your life to accomplish His purposes.

So keep an eye out for what God may desire to use in your life.

Where you live is no accident: Not according to God’s Word. Acts 17 says the God “gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us” (Acts 17:25–27, ESV). Yes, you may have moved to your city to follow a job offer or an opportunity to be near family or friends, but behind all of those desires God has placed you there -- right where you are -- and He desires to use you to befriend others in your city with His love.

Consider all the unremarkable stuff of your everyday life. I know it can all feel so ordinary, but is there ever really anything ordinary when it’s in the hands of an Almighty God?

Psalm 24:1 says, “The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, the world and all those who dwell therein.” Everything on earth is God’s, including the mundane stuff of your normal life.

God wants you to open your eyes while you are in the grocery store, the local coffee shop, the sporting events you attend, the restaurants you enjoy, and the streets you walk in your neighborhood. There are people all around you. People God loves.

God wants to use you to share His love with those people.

Perhaps the greatest friends of your lifetime will be those who have yet to walk across the threshold of your door.

Invite people into your home. Open the doors of your heart and watch God over-time open the doors of their hearts, as well.

God can use anything to accomplish His purposes, and He desires to use you and all your ordinary to do extraordinary things for His glory.

“Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest. (John 4:35, ESV)