How many of you know God doesn’t work within our limits. He doesn’t see things the way we see things. God simply does not fit in our box. EVER.

You likely have an unspoken box of how and when God can use you. He can use you when you are successful. He can use you when you are liked. He can use you when you look good. Those are boxes. Your boxes, but not God’s. The truth is, God can use you when you are struggling. God can use you when you are the least likely and the least liked. God can use you when you look rough, sister.

In fact, sometimes I’ve found when there’s less of what I would desire, there’s a whole lot more space for Jesus.

Stop limiting when and how God can work. If you’re down right now, let me remind you, God works in the pits. If you’re stuck right now, you need to know God sees exactly where you are and he knows the way out of this. And the beautiful thing is, God doesn’t need to wait until he gets you all fixed up again to use you for his good purposes – he wants to use you exactly where you are.

Moses was the Israelite baby threatened by the King of Egypt to be drown in the river. His mother placed him in a basket and sent him floating down the river, trusting God to save him. Down the river, the king’s daughter found baby Moses and rescued him. Then, as only God could do, he arranged for the baby’s mother to be paid to raise him while he was little, then he would go with the king’s daughter to the palace to be raised in royalty.

Moses received the best of both worlds – he learned about faith in God from his Israelite mother, and he learned how to lead in the palace from his royal adopted family. This was God setting him apart for divine purposes.

But one day, something terrible happens and in Moses’ eyes, it would be the end of his good life. He sees an Egyptian beating one of the Israelite slaves. Moses knew that while he was dressed like an Egyptian, he was one of the Israelites. So he defends his people and kills the Egyptian, then hides his body in the sand.

This began a series of running and hiding for Moses. The King, essentially his adopted grandfather, is trying to kill him. He can never go back home to the palace. So he ends up in the region of Midian where he’s a nobody, working for a farmer. Surely Moses thought he had ruined his life. Surely he thought God could never use him now.

And just when Moses thought he couldn’t be used by God, he was perfectly aligned! This low place is precisely where God could best use him. Not in his palace, not with his riches, not with his great successes and power. No, instead with his humility as a mere worker in the fields where he was a nobody – that is where God could best use him.

Now that he’s out of the palace, God would empower him to deliver his people. The place that looked like rock bottom where Moses is stuck hiding, is the place of the firm foundation where God would rebuild him into the leader for an entire nation to find freedom. God wasn’t finished with Moses just because he had failed. God wasn’t finished with Moses just because he was in a hard place. God was just getting started.

My friend, God isn’t finished with you just because you failed. He’s not finished with you while you’re in this hard place. Nope – he’s just getting started. What’s actually happening here is a divine stripping of self so you can return with holy power! Less of you – more of Jesus!

Just when you think you’re out, God say’s you’re in. Just when it feels too late, God says it’s his time. And remember, when God says it’s time, it’s the right time, then it’s quick time!

Now, it was quick time for Moses. But understand, Moses is not young at this point. It’s easy to read this story in Exodus chapter 2 and assume that Moses is some young man with a youthful spirit and his whole life ahead of him. No, actually, at this point, Moses is 80 years old! He was 40 years old when he killed the Egyptian and ran from the palace, and now he’s spent 40 more years hiding in Midian as a nobody working in the fields.

And this is when God chose to call Moses. At 80. Purpose at 80. Calling at 80. Change at 80. And what – you’ve been using the excuse of it’s too late for you?!!!

Exodus 3, God appears to Moses in a burning bush and says, “Moses, Moses!” He replies, “Here I am.” Then the Lord says, “I have certainly seen the oppression of my people in Egypt. I have heard their cries of distress because of their harsh slave drivers. Yes, I am aware of their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the power of the Egyptians and lead them out of Egypt into their own fertile and spacious land. NOW GO, FOR I AM SENDING YOU to Pharaoh. You must lead my people Israel out of Egypt.”

To this 80 year old nobody, God says, GO, I AM SENDING YOU!

Now tell me again why God can’t use you. Tell me why it’s too late for you. Tell me why God couldn’t work through your life at this point.

GIRL, YOU ARE NOT DISMISSED!

Maybe you’ve gone through a season of feeling like an absolute nobody. Great – that’s precisely who God loves to use. If you’re a nobody, then there’s a whole lot of space for Jesus in you. There’s absolutely no reason why God can’t work in your life to fulfill his great purposes.

God aligns us to his purpose in ways we cannot understand. He works through the hardships, through the setbacks, and through the disappointments to align us with a destiny greater than ourselves. Girl, you’re not out – you’re aligned!

Everything you went through, everything you came out of, everything you have been feeling within can align you now for a life of purpose through Jesus. God can use every bit of that for his good – if you’ll let him.

Moses was the perfect deliverer for these enslaved people because he was one of them by birth. But now he had also spent half his life in the palace and half his life in the pastures. Now he knew leadership and he knew hardship. Now he was a nobody just like the people God wanted him to save. That’s alignment.

Now that you’re one of the broken flawed people too, God can use you to deliver the broken and the flawed. Now that you’re one of the rescued, he can use you to go back and rescue others. Now that you’re one of the saved by grace girls, you can show his grace to the next girls who feel unworthy of that love. Sister, you’re just aligned now. Better than ever before, you’re in alignment!

Who better to help someone who has gone through what you’ve gone through – than you. Why? Because you have gone through it! God has aligned you to go back and rescue others for him. He’s sending you! You’re aligned.

Nothing is wasted with God. Time in the palace is not wasted. Time in the pasture is not wasted. Time in hardship is not wasted. Time in the wilderness is not wasted. In all this wandering, God writes a map on your soul. A map that leads back to him and his greater purposes for your lifetime.

Now, God wants to use you. Just as you are. Right where you are. Listen for his call.

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