"And Nathanael said to him, 'Can anything good come out of Nazareth?"
John 1:46 NKJV
Philip came to Nathanael and said, 'We have found Him of whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote - Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph John 1:45. Now, Nazareth was a small town in Galilee which had a poor reputation. Nathanael felt it was an obscure and totally insignificant place for the Messiah to come from. He had been born in Bethlehem, hadn't He? So he replied, 'Can anything good come out of Nazareth?' He was not speaking an insult towards the small town, not at all. He knew the place had very little going for it and the Messiah simply could not come from there. He was right about Him being born in Bethlehem but didn't realise that Jesus - the Messiah, had been brought up in Nazareth.
Through the years derogatory statements have been said about certain people. It appears to some that if a person does not come from a prominent member of society, then they could never become significant for God; they could never become a minister, evangelist or even a great scholar. 'Nothing good could ever come out of them'. Yet, many people have risen to great heights and become 'significant'. Smith Wigglesworth for instance, was a plumber and yet he could not read or speak grammatically and yet, God used him mightily to heal many people and raise some from the dead. His ways of ministering may have been questionable, but it worked for him. I know someone who was a baker's roundsman with no particular future but when God put someone alongside him, he rose to be a university graduate with a social care and theology degree and after conversion, now works for God. You see God can use the person who appears insignificant and turn him or her into someone of great value.
Perhaps, you have felt that you are insignificant, that you'll never be of use to God or anyone. Consider these three scriptures:
'Who has despised the day of small things?' Zechariah 4:10
'Let the weak say, "I am strong" Joel 3:10
'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 that are mighty.' 1 Corinthians 1:27.
The conclusion is, you are very significant in the things of God. You are valued, loved and important. Don't ever let anyone make you feel different.
Copyright 2021 Grahame Howard.
Member of the National Association of Christian Ministers
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