How Can My Story Actually Be Used for God's Purpose?
Exactly as it is. The messy parts, the parts you are ashamed of, the parts you have never said out loud, all of it. Not in spite of those things but because of them. Your story does not just give God glory. It magnifies it. And there is a difference.
We have spent this whole series looking at who God actually chooses to use. The last. The small. The ones with the jacked-up past. The ones who were overlooked, written off, behind, or disqualified in the world's eyes. And the question at the end of all of that is, okay. So what do I do with my story? How do I let God use it?
The answer starts in Hebrews 11. And there is one verse in that chapter that stopped me in my tracks and changed the way I see the whole thing.
Why Is Rahab Called 'the Harlot' in Hebrews 11?
Hebrews 11 is often called the Faith Hall of Fame. It is a passage that highlights some of the great figures of faith in Scripture. Noah. Abraham. Moses. Samson. And almost every single one of them has something in their background that is less than perfect. Noah was a drunkard. Abraham struggled with trusting God fully. Samson had his very well-documented issues with women. But the passage does not call those things out. It focuses on what they did by faith and moves on.
And then there is verse 31. Hebrews 11:31 (NKJV) says, "By faith the harlot Rahab did not perish with those who did not believe, when she received the spies with peace."
The harlot Rahab.
She is the only person in the entire chapter whose past is identified right there in her name. Not Abraham the doubter. Not Noah the drunk. Rahab the harlot. I sat with that for a while because it felt bold. Maybe even a little harsh. And then it clicked.
Here is how I think about it. Say you grew up in a neighborhood and there was somebody everybody knew who had a stutter. And that person went on to become a motivational speaker who addresses crowds of thousands. Are you going to say, Ralo did a speech? No. You are going to say, stuttering Ralo did a speech. Because the stutter is what makes the speech remarkable. You cannot tell the story of the victory without naming the obstacle. The obstacle is what makes the accomplishment breathtaking.
Rahab is called the harlot because that is what makes her story magnify God's glory. A prostitute who was not even one of God's chosen people recognized who He was, acted on it, hid the spies, and ended up in the bloodline of Jesus. Take away the harlot part and the story is still good. Keep it in and the story is extraordinary. God gets more glory from the full story.
What Does That Mean for Your Story?
I want to share something from one of our community members, a woman I have known since my twenties, and someone whose story I asked permission to tell because it matters too much to leave out.
She was in her early twenties when she found out her boyfriend was cheating. She got heated. She went to slash some tires. And in a fluke accident, she ended up cutting him. He survived. He was fine. But she ended up doing a couple of years in prison for what could have happened to any one of us on a very bad day.
Today she is a successful realtor. She is married with four children. She has a heart for women with jacked-up pasts. She works in the community on issues like recidivism. She does not walk around wearing her story on her sleeve. But she does not let the enemy stop her from sharing it when someone needs to hear it.
God used that story. Not around it. Through it.
And I will tell you about my own. I am not just Dr. A. I am Dr. A, a teenage mother, a divorcee, a woman who had an abortion. He gets more glory from that story than He does from the degrees alone. Every single part of it qualifies me to reach women that the polished version of me never could.
Hebrews 11:31 calls Rahab the harlot because God gets more glory from the full version of that story. And He gets more glory from the full version of yours too.
What Are We Doing When We Stay Silent?
When we let the enemy keep us hiding, ashamed of our history, protecting our image at the cost of our testimony, we are not just hurting ourselves. We are withholding from the people who need our story to know that God can reach them too.
Think about the woman who is in the exact place you were five years ago. The one sitting in shame over something she cannot imagine ever saying out loud. She needs your story. She needs to hear that someone who went through what she went through is now standing somewhere she cannot yet see. That is the power of the testimony. And when we go silent, she stays alone in hers.
Imagine a world where every believer understood that the jacked-up part of their story is not what disqualifies them but what qualifies them. Where we would help one another. Where we would overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony and not love our lives so much that we refuse to be transparent enough to reach someone else. Not only would we find ourselves helping other believers, we would reach people who only our story can reach.
Shed any shame from your story that the enemy has been using to keep you quiet. Shed the lie that the full picture of where you have been will make you less usable in God's kingdom. And shed the idea that God only gets glory from the clean parts of your life.
He is called the Redeemer for a reason. And Redeemer stories need something to redeem.
Take this to the Word yourself. Hebrews 11:31, Revelation 12:11, Psalm 107:2, Romans 8:28.
What This Means for You
How does your story, including the parts you have been most afraid to share, magnify God's glory? And who might be waiting on your version of that story to find their way out?
This is the final post in the Mighty Misfits series. Here is the full thread from the beginning.
Post 5: How Can My Story Actually Be Used for God's Purpose?
I teach God's Word weekly inside the SheShed Community, and this is exactly the kind of teaching that hits different when you're in the room for it. The replay of this teaching, "Mighty Misfits," is available inside the community as well. Come sit with us.
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