When God chooses to awaken his people, he often starts with one person acting in simple obedience. God specializes in using the unlikely person. He chose Moses when he was tending a flock to lead a million people out of Egypt. With thousands of warriors to choose from, God picked David to defeat Goliath. When all seemed lost in Israel, he began to work through an eight-year-old king named Josiah.
Josiah rejected the sin of his most recent ancestors and reached back to the faithfulness of his ancestor David. As a young boy, Josiah sought God and found him. When leaders were renovating the temple, they came across the scroll of Deuteronomy. When Josiah heard what God said about the judgment of his people, the young king repented and asked his people to follow his example. Then he actively destroyed the idols in Israel and encouraged the people to join him.
A friend reminded me of a domino experiment at MIT. Since one domino can knock over another 1.5x larger, the theory is that one small domino could exert enough force through multiplication to topple a large building. Just so, one person’s obedience can create a chain reaction in a church, a country, or the world.
I wonder whom God will use to bring spiritual renewal to our community and our world. He is willing to start with one person who is seeking him. Remember God’s eyes range throughout the earth to strengthen the person who is fully committed to him (2 Chronicles 16:9). British evangelist Henry Varley said to a young Dwight L. Moody, “The world has yet to see what God can do with and for and through and in a man who is fully and wholly consecrated to Him.” Moody asked God to make him that man, and the Lord granted his request. What if you and I asked God to make us that person? Won’t he do it? He will!
