Many Christians suffer from an inferiority complex because they do not fit the mould of a godly servant, whatever they imagine it to be. Sometimes the fault is ours because we put restrictions on God; sometimes it is others', who believe they have the Lord figured out. Thank God, there is no such mould, no established pattern into which we must fit before He can use us. God can use each one of us.

Jephthah is a man with a tragic past, a checkered career, and more than his share of faults. His inner conflicts run deep. Yet God in His wisdom chooses to use and work through him. Let's look at his first two stages of development.

First, Jephthah is the man nobody wanted (Judges 11:1-3). His mother was a common prostitute, and he grew up on the margins of his family. When his father died, he was forced to flee and make his way in the world, all on his own. Alone, that is, except for God. The grace of God was at work in Jephthah's life, rescuing him from a hopeless future. God does not submit to human prejudices, and is not limited by social, parental, and environmental factors. We are not a prisoner of our past, no matter how difficult or dysfunctional. God delights in using the ″unusable″ and in making the ″ugly″ beautiful.

Second, Jephthah became the bandit chief (Judges 11:3). After he fled to the frontier area of Tob, he became the leader of a ragtag group, and it was there that he learnt leadership and warfare and strategy, which God later used for His glory. The practical skills he learnt in Tob became the reservoir on which he could draw when his role expanded. God does not ignore a person's strengths or skills, whether innate or acquired. He was overseeing Jephthah's development, long before he had any idea of his destiny. The years in the wilderness were not a waste, but an investment.

Sometimes, Christians fall into the trap of viewing their pre-conversion experience as a vast wasteland from which nothing can be redeemed. That is not true. The gifts and talents that you have can be used in some way for His glory and service. God is sovereign both in your salvation and before it; nothing brought to Him is wasted.

Jephthah did not have a father or mother to accept him, but he did have the Lord. He knew what it was to be taken in by the Lord when even those closest to him had rejected him, and because that rejection drew him closer to the Lord, it made Jephthah the man he was for God.