There are so many amazing heroes in the Bible!

If you’re like me, you’ve heard the stories since you were a kid in Sunday school; stories about people who did extraordinary things for God, and had incredible faith.

Deep down, I long to be like those people!

I want to have an unfaltering faith in God!

I want to live a story worth sharing with the world!

But, it’s hard to measure up to the heroes in these stories we’ve heard for so long…

They seem almost super human in their faith and accomplishments. Their trust in God seems so concrete. After all, who would tell stories for centuries about heroes who were anything less than perfect, right?

Well, if you dig a little deeper into the Word, and learn a little more about these celebrated heroes, you might be surprised to find that they really aren’t so perfect.

The enemy would like us to believe that we will never be able to achieve hero (or heroine!) status because we are too flawed. Sometimes we doubt, sometimes we make a mess of things, and sometimes we flat out miss the mark!

Perfect?

Yeah, right!

But, guess what? The heroes we admire from the Bible weren’t perfect either. As a matter of fact, they were a lot like you and me!

Seriously.

These guys (and girls) didn’t get hero status for perfection.

Hebrews 11 is often referred to as the Faith Chapter. In it we find hero and heroine that accomplished great things by faith.

Heroines like Sara who bore Isaac in her old age because she judged God faithful to fulfill His promise. This is the same Sarah who got impatient waiting of the promise of God and gave her handmaid, Hagar, to her husband so she could conceive.

Sara and Abraham both made a huge mess of things by taking matters into their own hands. Even after they received the promise, their family life didn’t improve much.

Heroines like Rehab, who was a harlot ut chose to stand with God’s people and save the spies who went in to scout out Jericho for Joshua.

Yes, a harlot.

But, she did something great for God!

These people are honored for their faith, but they weren’t perfect. They had doubts and they didn’t always get everything right.

Even Job, who is often quoted because of statements like, “Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him…” wasn’t as perfect in His faith as we make him out to be.

If you continue reading that same scripture, Job 13:15, you’ll see He struggled just like we often do. Job says, “I will trust in Him, but I will maintain mine own ways before Him.”

We put Job up on a pedestal, after all God even called him perfect and upright. But, Job struggled throughout his ordeal more than we usually acknowledge.

When it comes down to it, we don’t have to measure up to super human heroes. What made their stories worth telling is the fact that they were ordinary people following an extraordinary God.

When they fell, they got up.

When they doubted, they chose to believe anyway.

When they messed up, they made their way back to Him.

In spite of their failures and mistakes, they made themselves available to God. When the time came to do something amazing, or a circumstance arose that took faith beyond average, God was able to use them

You and I can be heroes, too! In fact, we already are.

As long as we keep trying and keep pursuing Him, we have so many opportunities to be a hero. We can pray prayers that move mountains, hold to our faith in the middle of difficulty, and be the catalyst for change in our communities.

We can change the world for one person at a time as we point them to Jesus and show them that they don’t have to be perfect.

They can live for Him.

They can make a difference.

Just like the great men and women in the Bible, we can show others that they can be heroes.

Heroes like you and me.