God prefers losers! He prefers people who know their weaknesses and their flaws and admit their mistakes and sins and cry out to Him for help. God specializes in taking losers and nobodies and displaying His power through them. The Bible is full of people like that. Noah had too much wine and got drunk. Abraham lied about being married to his wife. Jacob was a cheat. Moses murdered an Egyptian. Rahab was a prostitute. Gideon was full of fear. Samson had serious problems with lust and anger. Eli failed as an absentee father to his sons. David was an adulterer and a murderer. Elijah struggled with depression. Jonah ran away from what God wanted him to do. Peter denied Christ. God has always preferred people who lose the pretense and false assessment of themselves and acknowldege their weaknesses and flaws, admit their mistakes and cry out to Him for help. God prefers losers; nobodies. If God only chose people who seemed to have no character flaws or weaknesses the credit for their victories in life would inevitably go to them and not to Him. By choosing and loving losers and nobodies, sinful and flawed people, God alone gets the glory and praise when they accomplish great things for Him.

Scriptures
Judges 7:2-6, 20; 2 Corinthians 4:4-7

Verse
But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all surpassing power is from God and not from us. 2 Corinthians 4:7

Thought
Paul told the Corinthian Christians that they possessed a treasure. Most, if not all of them, probably thought he was crazy because they were far from being rich with material goods. They would have been the last people to think they had a treasure. Their faulty thinking is the same that many Christians have today some 2,000 years later. Paul was referring to the greatest treasure anyone could possess in this life and it didn’t cost one cent. It wasn’t a treasure of gold, silver, chariots, horses, marble palaces or vast estates Paul was talking about. He was making reference to the gift of salvation and eternal life. As in the first century, 21st century men and women can also have this treasure because of the birth, sinless life, death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Questions
How hard is it for you to acknowledge being a loser or a nobody even when you know God prefers these people? Who were some of the losers and nobodies in the Christmas story? What is the greatest treasure you possess? When was the last time you experienced being fragile and broken in life? How does Satan blind the spiritual eyes of people at Christmas? How do you think Gideon felt when God kept reducing the size of his army? How do you feel when God reduces those things you have relied upon for your victories in life? How tempted are you to take credit for the good things God does through you? How would you explain this statement? “There have always been men and women so clever that God could make no use of them.” What is one thing you can do this Christmas to be a nobody for Jesus?

Response
Be willing to surrender your life to God and acknowledge your dependence on Him for anything good that will ever come from your life. Determine to lose the pretense and false assessment of yourself and acknowledge your weakness, admit your mistakes and sins and ask Him for mercy.

Prayer
Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for taking losers and nobodies and doing great things through their lives. I want to be a nobody for you and let you use me to further your kingdom for the days I have left on this earth. I’ll be a “jar of clay” and look with anticipation at what you chose to do in and through me. In the name of Jesus I pray. Amen.