Out Performing our Faults

“So they went and entered the house of a prostitute named Rahab and stayed there.” Joshua 2:1b.

The Bible doesn’t try to sugarcoat the lives of God’s children throughout His word. In Joshua, we meet a woman whose profession went before her name in her introduction… ‘a prostitute named Rahab.’ In our society any time a profession comes before a name it is usually associated with an earned academic achievement such as Dr. or Pastor Smith. No doubt Rahab wasn’t proud of her name but accepted the label that derived from the life that she lived out.

Sometimes we place a label before our own name when we define ourselves by our weaknesses or past sins. We call ourselves stupid or sinful when we have made a mistake or lonely when we have been rejected. Though our negative self –talk we not only convince ourselves we are the sum of our mistakes, but we subconsciously communicate that to others. The wonderful thing about negative labels is that we have the grace from God to turn that label into service towards Him. When we see God for who He really is, the God of heaven and earth, in control of all things we will be able to out perform our self-imposed shortcomings. ‘…she [Rahab] went up on the roof and said to them…for the LORD your God is God in heaven above and on earth below.’ Joshua 2:8-10.

Once Rahab accepted God as her own God, she became one of the heroes of faith that made it into the Hall of Faith in Hebrews 11:31. ‘By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient.’ Notice that her sin was still before her when recording her faithfulness as if to remind us that God accomplishes great things through us even while we are sinners. God included her in the roll call of faith, not embarrassed by the facts of her life but recognizing her for her faith in Him. By hiding the spies, Rahab was instrumental in the success of God’s children taking the land. She didn’t wait until she was sinless but served God despite her sin, through her faith.

God will take whatever shortcomings we may have and transform them into acts of faith and deliverance. We must believe God at His word…and it is written… ‘But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.’ Romans 5:8. There is another book in which our names and deeds will be recorded called The Book of Life. God esteems those who work within their shortcomings to serve in the earthly kingdom. Then one fine day we will remove our sinful flesh and replace it with a heavenly spirit.