During an interview this week I was asked why so many of the heroes of the Bible had serious flaws. My answer was simple. That’s all God has to work with. All the perfect people are in heaven. The only ones on earth are the folks with serious weaknesses. The talent pool has always been pretty thin when it comes to moral perfection. So God works with sinners because that’s all he has to work with. In heaven we will all be vastly improved–perfected by God’s grace. But until then, he uses some pretty ornery people who fall short in many ways–and he does some amazing things through them.

If God chose only well-rounded people with no character flaws, some of the credit would inevitably go to the people and not to the Lord. By choosing flawed people with a bad past, a shaky present and an uncertain future, God alone gets the glory when they accomplish amazing things by his power.

And best of all, since God delights to use clay pots instead of high-dollar china (2 Corinthians 4:7), there is plenty of hope for you and me. We’re not all we’re cracked up to be, and most of us are cracked in more than one place, which makes us excellent candidates for the grace of God. That’s good news, especially for those clay pots with a few extra cracks.

You can reach the author at ray@keepbelieving.com. Click here to sign up for the free weekly email sermon.