Romans -- God Uses Nobodies

Today's reading, Romans 4, is difficult for me to follow and understand, so I decided to read it in The Message version. You may chose to do the same! I've put both links for you.
Read in The Message version
Read in NIV
Today's Devotion -- Romans 4:17-18
17-18We call Abraham "father" not because he got God's attention by living like a saint, but because God made something out of Abraham when he was a nobody. Isn't that what we've always read in Scripture, God saying to Abraham, "I set you up as father of many peoples"? Abraham was first named "father" and then became a father because he dared to trust God to do what only God could do: raise the dead to life, with a word make something out of nothing. When everything was hopeless, Abraham believed anyway, deciding to live not on the basis of what he saw he couldn't do but on what God said he would do. (NIV)

taken from www.biblegateway.com

I'm fascinated by the story of Abraham. There is no Biblical evidence that he was a follower of God before he was called to relocate his entire family. He was just one of a crowd of people in the bustling town of Haran, where the majority of people (including Abraham's father) worshipped the moon-god.

But God knew Abraham's heart, and he knew that he could mold Abraham into a man of great faith. Step by step he instructed Abraham in the right way to worship, and God tested his faith with a variety of means -- relocation, circumcision, impossible conception, and sacrificing his own child. Abraham made lots of mistakes, many serious, but God hung in there with him to create a level of faith that will be remembered eternally.

Isn't it amazing to know that God could do the same with us? We, too, are ordinary people, nobodies, even. Yet day by day God tells us how to grow in our faith. We will make tons of mistakes, serious ones, yet God will patiently correct us and prod us in the right direction if we will only trust in his love.

We may never be famous here on earth, and we will most likely never be written about in books read around the world, but our tasks are just as significant as Abrahams'. God will develop our faith and use the skills he's given us to make a significant difference in his kingdom -- if we will only trust him.

It is overwhelming to think that he will use a nobody like me to make a difference. I pray that I will be up to his task!