Grace Wilder was a normal college student. I’m sure she never dreamed of being a founder of a movement of college students. But one day, she used her hands for something new. She wrote out invitations or knocked on doors and invited women to a Bible study. She wrote out a commitment statement to convey her convictions. And she studied her Bible and wrote lessons each week.

It wasn’t heroic; it was just a young girl doing what she could do to build the kingdom of God in her corner of the world.

The Hands of Time
Grace Wilder had two things that you and I have: hands and time. Not those two arms that sweep around the face of a clock, but the hands that God uses over time to build His kingdom. Hands like yours and mine, hands that have worked in countless tiny corners of this planet over 2,000 years to extend and build God’s kingdom.

Hands and time have always been God’s way. He used a shepherd named Moses, an immoral woman named Rahab, a farmer named Gideon, a simple young woman named Ruth, a wealthy planter named Boaz, a shepherd named David, teenagers named Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego, and a rascally prophet named Jonah.

In the New Testament, God used a teenage girl named Mary, a carpenter named Joseph, fishermen named Peter, Andrew, James, and John, a tax-collector named Matthew, a doctor named Luke, a real-estate owner named Barnabas, a tent maker named Paul, a husband and wife team named Priscilla and Aquila, and a teenager named Timothy.

God has used every class and category of people on the face of the earth to build His kingdom. And He wants to use you and me in the same way.

People Are the Priority
There’s nothing easy about working with and through people. People—Christian people—can be lazy, disruptive, self-centered, uncooperative, and downright cantankerous.

Why does He use people like us?” God uses us to build His kingdom because we are the kingdom! Paul said, “The kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Romans 14:17).

In the Old Testament, the kingdom had a geographic center: Jerusalem. God dwelt there among His people, drawing all nations to himself in Jerusalem.

But because Israel failed to embrace her King, Jesus Christ, the kingdom is no longer centered in Jerusalem. The kingdom is centered in the hearts of those who embrace Jesus. Wherever on earth they go and manifest the values of the kingdom of God, so goes the kingdom itself. Peter says that we are living stones building up the dwelling of God on earth (1 Peter 2:4-6). As God builds us into the image and character of Christ (Romans 8:29), so the kingdom of God is built to reflect the rule of the King.

But the kingdom is not growing just in maturity, it is growing in numbers as well. Therefore, as God matures us in Christ, He uses us to reach out and invite others into the kingdom. We build the kingdom as we submit to the lordship of the King and introduce others to Him—invite them to be kingdom dwellers and kingdom builders with us.

Builders and Their Tools
Each of us has been given tools (spiritual gifts and natural abilities). God has uniquely equipped each of us according to His will to play a role in building His kingdom (Psalm 139:13-16; Romans 12:3-6; 1 Corinthians 12:18).

Grace Wilder used the tools God gave her to build the kingdom at Mount Holyoke College—and she changed her world. She didn’t change the world because she helped found a movement of 100,000 students. She changed the world because she was willing to teach the Bible to thirty-four students in Massachusetts. If only one person had attended, the world would have been changed, the kingdom would have been built up.

Whoever and wherever you are, God wants you to be a kingdom builder. Take stock of your tools. You are God’s “hands of time” to spread His rule and reign on earth.

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This article was excerpted from Turning Points, Dr. David Jeremiah’s devotional magazine. Call Turning Point at 1-800-947-1993 for your complimentary copy of Turning Points.