The Last Shall be First

WEEKLY DEVOTIONAL BY PATRICE TSAGUE

Have you ever felt like the black sheep of your family? 
Are you surprised by the prophetic words that the Lord has spoken to you concerning His will for your life? 
Do you ever feel that your business is among the least in the industry?

The Last Shall be First

I am always amazed by the people God chooses to use for His purpose, as it is often those whom you would least expect. In Judges 6, we read that because the Israelites had done great evil in the sight of the LORD, He had given them over “into the hand of Midian for seven years, and the hand of Midian prevailed against Israel. Because of the Midianites, the children of Israel made for themselves the dens, the caves, and the strongholds which are in the mountains” (Joshua 6:1b-2).

Because of their tribulation, the Israelites cried out to God for deliverance. In response, God sent a powerful angel to visit a man named Gideon, and “the Angel of the LORD appeared to him, and said to him, ‘The LORD is with you, you mighty man of valor!’”  (Judges 6:12). The angel went on to tell Gideon that God would use him to deliver Israel from the hand of the Midianites, their cruel oppressors for the past seven years.

This visitation and messages were a great surprise to Gideon, who did not see himself as a “mighty man of valor.” Instead, by his own account, his clan was “the weakest in Israel,” and he was “the least in his father’s house” (Judges 15).

But Gideon was defining his identity and his destiny based on where he was born and the family he was from. God sent an angel to speak to Gideon because he needed Gideon to see his destiny based upon God’s view of him, and God’s purpose for him.

Out of all of my family members, just like Gideon, I seemed the least likely to succeed. I did not take school very seriously throughout my youth, and I played more than I studied.  Furthermore, I was raised by a woman who had an 8th-grade education, and whose first child was born out of wedlock. My father left her when I was a baby, and she became a second wife to a man who was already married. Very few people thought she would amount to anything. In spite of this, she became very successful in business and politics. 

We were not a Christian family, and my family supported a corrupt government. I even made a case against Christianity while in high school during a class debate because I saw Christians as hypocrites.

It was a huge surprise to many people when the Lord saved me and called me to preach the Gospel and start a ministry that teaches people how to do business based on His Word. Now I am one of the “hypocrites” I once argued against. God has a sense of humor! In spite of my background – and perhaps even because of it – God calls me “a mighty man of valor,” just like Gideon!

You are also a “mighty man (or woman) of valor.” If you have accepted God’s call to deploy your gifts, skills, and abilities for His Glory, and to honor Him in the marketplace, you are God’s mighty man of valor. You are God’s warrior. Although your background does shape you to some extent, in God’s scheme of things, it will never limit you. Where you come from is insignificant; your circumstances irrelevant; and your “smarts” unnecessary; because God will do it all. He just needs you to yield your members to His use.

God loves taking small, insignificant, least-likely-to-succeed individuals (and businesses), and turning them into success stories. This way, God and God alone will receive all the glory for the outcome.

Do you feel overwhelmed by the responsibilities before you, but assured of your call? 
Are you certain of the direction, but have limited resources?
Are you intimidated by the competition, but strong in your faith? 

Get ready because God is about to “make the last first” (Luke 13:30) so that He can show you and others that He is God, and He alone is God. He will elevate whom He chooses. Reflect on the passage below, written by the Apostle Paul, and give God all the Glory, for He alone is great.

For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence.

But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God – and righteousness and sanctification and redemption – that, as it is written, “He who glories, let him glory in the LORD. – 1 Corinthians 1:26-31 (NKJV)

My prayer for you is that God will show you the way that He sees you, so that your future will not be limited by your thinking, your background, or your circumstances, and that as you rise up on wings like eagles through the revelation of who you are in His sight, that God will use you mightily for His Glory, just as He used Gideon and the Apostle Paul.