3 Take your part in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. 2 Timothy 2:3 (translated from the NA28 Greek text)
One of the examples God continually uses in my walk to draw me away from being self-focused into being Christ-focused, repentant, and, therefore, usable in His Kingdom is John Bunyan. Why? I have a tendency to focus inward and with that comes a sense of my sinfulness and unworthiness to even be called a Christian. I look at those whom God uses to feed me spiritually and I see how small I am. How can God use one such as me? God has helped me through this by showing me through the life of men like John Bunyan that His ways are not man’s ways and we are much better off being in the center of His will than where our flesh wants us to be. What do I mean? The well educated and those with large ministries are more often then not the ones who are on the road to apostasy just as in Bunyan’s day. Bunyan was barely educated and his only education in theology was from the Word of God and sitting at the feet of his pastor. God raised him up to do a mighty work in the Church, but it was one that involved much suffering. Has God changed how He does things?