Don't Have a Way With Words? You're Not Hopeless, God Can Use You!

Paul. What do you think of when you hear that name? A devoted follower of Christ? A wonderful apostle of Jesus who made many follow in his footsteps? A Jesus follower with a wonderful, bold ways with words? Not someone we could ever live up to? 

If you're thinking that, then you must never have read 2 Corinthians 2:2-5, or at least not taken it to heart. 2 Corinthians 2:2-5 reads, "'My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power.'" 

Suddenly, this changes everything. Or at least it did for me. Paul is basically admitting, "Hey, you think I'm an awesome role model? Think again! It's God whose the awesome role model. My words were weak, had too many 'Uh's and 'Um...'s in them. They weren't persuasive words, and the way I presented them definitely wasn't a work of art you'd see hanging around any Art Museum. For goodness's sake, my words weren't even good enough for an article on a newspaper! It was all God's doing." Maybe that's not exactly how he'd phrase it...but I think it's close enough. 

Think Paul's being humble here? 2 Timothy 3:16 would say otherwise. "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness..." This isn't Paul saying 'Aww, shucks, thanks for the boost of confidence, God, but it really wasn't that awesome. I think I'll just slip in something here to let the reader's of this book know that'. "All Scripture is God-breathed..." 

Paul isn't just adding the part about him being a bad speaker to be humble. He's being completely honest. So, the point?? What's it matter about if Paul was a good speaker or not?

The point is, you don't have to be a good speaker. Look at Paul. According to him, he was pretty crummy at speaking. But Paul did have a demonstration of the Holy Spirit. And this proved to others listening to him that it was God's power, not Paul's fancy way with words. Don't worry if you don't have a way with words. Don't be concerned if you stumble or can't think of the words to say. Let Jesus's light shine out through you in all you do, so that's Christ's power is seen, not with any words of wisdom from you, but with the demonstration of the Holy Spirit. 

Kayla Joy