Can God use us when we are suffering from a disability?

Exodus 4:10-11Moses pleaded with the Lord, “O Lord, I’m not very good with words. I never have been, and I’m not now, even though you have spoken to me. I get tongue-tied, and my words get tangled.” Then the Lord asked Moses, “Who makes a person’s mouth? Who decides whether people speak or do not speak, hear or do not hear, see or do not see? Is it not I, the Lord?”

God is more powerful than our limitations. What we see as something that would hold us back, God sees as an opportunity to display his power. God certainly had big plans for Moses.

Ruth 1:16Ruth replied, “Don’t ask me to leave you and turn back. Wherever you go, I will go; wherever you live, I will live. Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God.”

In the culture of ancient Israel, Ruth had two significant disabilities—she was a foreigner and a widow—yet she is a model of loyalty and became an ancestor of the Messiah.

Galatians 6:11Notice what large letters I use as I write these closing words in my own handwriting.

The apostle Paul may have had a serious vision problem, yet the Lord was pleased to use him in mighty ways. Never use your limitations as an excuse not to serve God.

1 Corinthians 12:7A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other.

God has given all his people—no matter what our disabilities—spiritual gifts for serving others. Sometimes our very limitations enable us to serve in ways that nobody else can.

Isaiah 35:5-6When he comes, he will open the eyes of the blind and unplug the ears of the deaf. The lame will leap like a deer, and those who cannot speak will sing for joy! Springs will gush forth in the wilderness, and streams will water the wasteland.

Jeremiah 31:8“I [the Lord] will bring them from the north and from the distant corners of the earth. I will not forget the blind and lame, the expectant mothers and women in labor. A great company will return!”

God wants to use all his people to accomplish his work and he has a special calling for each of us, no matter what challenges we face. All of us have weaknesses—some visible, others unseen by others—but God will supply whatever strength or ability we need to serve him.