I Samuel 22:1-2 “David left Gath and escaped to the City of Adullam. When his brothers and his father’s household heard about it, they went down to him there. All those who were in distress or in debt or discontented gathered around him, and he became their commander. About four hundred men were with him.”
David would have to do the best he could with the personal resources God handed him; a rag-tag army to be sure, but trainable. As a boy he had been a shepherd. He had been ignored and at times despised by his family. After his anointing he lived as a fugitive; a life filled with adversity. God used all these circumstances to train him. He turned out to be a terrific king. In the long run, the recruits who joined him became mighty men of valor.
Principle: God uses broken people at work to accomplish His work.
God can use so-called failures to accomplish His purposes and build great organizations. David was broken and at the bottom of his career. Those who joined David at that time were not the rich, successful, or powerful, but they became part of the greatest army ever assembled. God, through David, turned these men into mighty men of valor.
In God’s economy, failure does not make us failures. It makes us experienced and prepared to be useful in God’s Kingdom. The best employee I ever had came out of prison, clean from drugs, but in debt with a terrible credit background and a family in chaos. But she loved Jesus. All this prepared her to change the course of her life, which God did.
Some of the best pastors in the country today are from the Calvary Chapel movement. Fair to say that Greg Laurie, Mike MacIntosh, Raul Reese, Skip Heitzig and others came from broken, wretched conditions and were transformed into powerful, effective warriors for Jesus. Get Greg Laurie’s biographical movie, Lost Boy, and see for yourself how a broken background can be turned into a repaired, restored, and redeemed life.
Discussion:
1. What positive experience have you had in hiring broken people?
2. What character qualities did they have that helped them overcome their past failures?
3. How has God used your “broken” for His glory?
