One of the biggest misconceptions that I find when we use the word “ordinary” is that we tend to think of this word as being synonymous with “inadequate”, “insufficient” or “insignificant”. I’d like to remind you, that ordinary is none of these terms at all!
ordinary: of common quality, ability or rank
When something or someone is ordinary, it simply means that it is of the same quality as the majority. If you’ve ever felt “just ordinary” don’t think of it as a bad thing! Can I encourage you by saying that while most of us, yes myself included, are “just ordinary”; but when we “ordinary people” submit our hearts, our will and our lives to God, something incredible happens, God’s extraordinary virtue and power begins to work in us, through us and for us!
There is something incredibly special about our God in that He absolutely loves performing extraordinary feats by using ordinary people. Paul puts it this way:
“If you only look at us, you might well miss the brightness. We carry this Precious Message around in the unadorned clay pots of our ordinary lives. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves. 2 Corinthians 4:7 (MSG)
What an incredible revelation, that in our ordinary lives, God has placed two things: His incomparable power and His precious message. Think about that the next you’re feeling ordinary! See, I think we get in trouble when we play the comparison game. We have a tendency to compare our ordinary lives against the highlight reels of the lives of others. You’ve got to remember that we’re all living the same human experience, that essentially makes us all ordinary! Even the heroes of the Bible, yes even the faith all-stars, were ordinary!
“The prayer of a person living right with God is something powerful to be reckoned with. Elijah, for instance, human just like us, prayed hard that it wouldn’t rain, and it didn’t — not a drop for three and a half years. Then he prayed that it would rain, and it did. The showers came and everything started growing again.” James 5:17 (MSG)
Ok, so I bet you’re still thinking about the three and a half years of no rain right? I agree, that’s pretty amazing! I mean who does that? Who prays for no rain, seriously? Elijah, that’s who! So you think of Elijah, and immediately you think of his highlight reel, this is the prophet who called down fire from heaven in a sacrifice showdown with 450 pagan prophets. Or maybe you think of him as the guy who was taken up to heaven in a chariot of fire. Yeah, talk about a highlight reel!
But I have to direct your attention away from the Elijah Top 10 plays, and look at what James says about the prophet: “Elijah, for instance, human just like us…”
Did you catch that? Human. Just like us. Let me give you a glimpse of the prophet’s humanity. Right after he calls down fire from heaven, which caused the entire nation of Israel to turn back to God, he is given a death threat by a queen named Jezebel and what does Elijah do? He runs away and hides. Wow, human after all.
You see, it wasn’t that Elijah was extraordinary, it was that he was connected to the Extraordinary One! The only One who could answer a prayer with fire from heaven, heard the prayers of an ordinary man! Our God is the One who still hears and answers the prayers of ordinary people!
I am convinced that when ordinary people pray, extraordinary things WILL happen! So the next time you are feeling “just ordinary”, I dare you to pray!
Prayer makes our lives extraordinary in several ways:
- Prayer is an opportunity to have a God encounter on a daily basis.
- Prayer is our confession of our dependence on God.
- Prayer causes Heaven to interact with Earth, it brings the supernatural into the natural.
When us ordinary people pray, we release the extraordinary power of God to work in us, through us and for us. The prayer of a person living right with God is something powerful to be reckoned with! When you pray, you become a force to be reckoned with, and that is extraordinary!
Pray and live extraordinarily,
Jared
