God uses ordinary Christians to do incredible things! You don’t have to be famous or flashy—your everyday story could spark real change. God can set your life on fire with purpose, right where you are. Your story matters more than you think.
The Trap of Comparison
Today in our digitally dominated world, social media algorithms are flooded by seemingly extraordinary people doing extraordinary things. This often leads to a phenomenon called “doom scrolling” where people spend hours on end comparing their seemingly mundane lives with what is on the screen. If we’re being honest with ourselves, we as Christians can find ourselves doing the same thing. We see a reel or a social media post about a successful on-stage ministry or hear about an incredible story of a missionary journey, and we can be tempted to wonder if our ordinary life can have any kind of extraordinary impact.
Friend, one of the worst pitfalls of our day is to compare our behind the scenes with someone else’s highlight reel. All throughout Scripture, we see stories of how God took fallen, ordinary people and used them for a mighty purpose in His plan for the world.
Examples in Scripture
- Moses – a stuttering shepherd who doubted his calling, yet God used him to deliver Israel from Egypt (Exodus 3–4).
- David – a nobody who was anointed to be King of Israel and considered a man after Gods own heart (1 Samuel 16).
- Mary – a teenage girl from Nazareth, chosen to raise Jesus, the Son of God (Luke 1:26–38).
- Peter – He was rough around the edges and denied Jesus but still preached at Pentecost and led thousands to Jesus.
- The Disciples – A group of uneducated men who God used to catapult the Church.
God’s method hasn’t changed. He still uses the stories of ordinary Christians to move His plan forward. At Forge, our mission is “More Kingdom laborers!” We want to ignite hearts on fire and lives on purpose! Your life is anything but ordinary! As a matter of fact, it is through the stories of ordinary Christians that the fires of revival have been fanned into flame throughout history.
The Call to Reset
The Bible warns that comparison is unwise (2 Cor. 10:12). It snuffs out the spark in our lives that God could use to ignite a raging fire in others. In order to keep from the pitfall of comparison, we need to reset our algorithms. If you Googled “stories of ordinary Christians,” the results might surprise you.
Stories of Ordinary Christians
In the 18th century, there was a stay-at-home mom by the name of Susanna Wesley. She was the mother of 11 children and invested heavily in each of them. She homeschooled them, taught them important principles on having intimacy with God throughout their life and personally invested an hour a week one-on-one with each child. Two of her children were John and Charles Wesley. Charles Wesley became one of the greatest hymn writers in history and John Wesley became a leader in the First Great Awakening, a revival that spread across Britain and America in the 18th century. He also founded the Methodist movement built on salvation by faith, personal holiness and small group discipleship.
Both John and Charles Wesley credited their mother for instilling in them the spiritual disciplines that shaped them and allowed God to use them in such powerful ways. Susanna did what any loving mother would do—raise her children to love and serve Jesus. Little did she know that her role as an ordinary homemaker would have such a ripple effect on the world that is still felt today. You never know what one of your children is going to do for the Kingdom, and you may have the privilege of igniting their heart on fire to live out the purpose God has for them. That is anything but ordinary!
In the 19th century, a simple Sunday school teacher named Edward Kimball built a relationship with a shoe store clerk named Dwight Moody and led him to Jesus in the back of the shoe store. Dwight Moody went on to become one of the greatest evangelists of the 19th century and founded the Moody Bible Institute. Moody also went on to influence a man named F.B. Meyer who became a pastor, and mentored an evangelist named Wilber Chapman. Wilber Chapman went on to mentor an ordinary baseball player named Billy Sunday and Sunday led a man named Mordecai Hamm to Jesus.
Mordecai Hamm became an evangelist who preached revivals all over the country. In 1934 while Mordecai Hamm was preaching a revival in Charlotte, North Carolina, a boy named Billy Graham went forward and gave his life to Christ. Billy Graham went on to become the most popular evangelist of the 20th century, preaching the Gospel to 215 million people across 85 countries and touching generations of people for the Kingdom of God.
This chain reaction over the course of a century was ignited by a Sunday school teacher and a cashier at a shoe store. Bill Hybels once said, “God uses ordinary people to accomplish extraordinary things.” I will never forget sitting in a room with Dwight Robertson during Forge Equipping as he shared a story of playing dominos with his grandmother. She explained to him that once the first domino in a row falls, the rest of the dominos will fall with it.
All it takes is one push to set a chain of events into motion. God can and will use you in the ordinary circumstances of your life. You never know the ripple effect your life will have in the everyday moments at the office or the interactions you have waiting tables. Only heaven will reveal the impact of sharing your God-Story and how it shaped someone’s eternity for generations to come. It is through the stories of ordinary Christians like you and I that God changes the world!
Defining Your Life by Faithfulness
The algorithm of your life can spark the next great revival! Here’s the real question: will you define your life by success—or by significance and faithfulness? If you try to view your life by how successful you’ve been, that is where comparison sets in and extinguishes your fire. But if you start viewing your life as a vessel for God to create that which is significant, even in your everyday places and spaces, that will set your heart on fire for a life on purpose. The stories of ordinary Christians still matter today—in fact, they are anything but ordinary!
