“Fear not, you worm Jacob, you men of Israel! I am the one who helps you, declares the Lord” (Isaiah 41:14).

We humans don’t think too highly of worms, do we? We know they have their place in the world, but we are not very impressed with them. Well, how would you like to be compared with a worm? That’s exactly what the prophet Isaiah, speaking on behalf of the Lord, called the men of Israel. In other words, they were weak, powerless, and greatly in need of help. Thankfully, God promised to help them. “Behold, I make of you a threshing sledge, new, sharp, and having teeth; you shall thresh the mountains and crush them, and you shall make the hills like chaff” (Isaiah 41:15). God would take the weak, and make them powerful. God would take the ineffective and make them useful for His purposes.

“I am nothing.” My friend Donny wrote a song by that title and it fits me to the T. I am nothing – nothing but a worm. As I look back on my life, I am amazed at what God has done. He has taken a worm like me and given me so much, and for some reason He continues to use me. This is nothing but the grace of God. My prayer is that each day God will take worm Daniel and make me an effective instrument for His purposes.

“For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong, God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of the Lord” (1 Corinthians 1:26-29).

Just for your information, in the book Transforming Grace (2008) by Jerry Bridges, there is a helpful section that deals with this passage on pages 199-202.