Mensa Otabil - Becoming All Things (10/26/2025)
Welcome to day number 15 of our 40 days of power. Making progress, we are moving steadily. This week, we are talking about breaking barriers, and that should be your prayer focus. As we learn these words, you should also pray that God will help you break barriers in your life. Today, we’re discussing becoming all things from First Corinthians chapter 9, verses 22 to 23. «To the weak, I became as weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. Now this I do for the gospel’s sake, that I may be a partaker of it with you.»
To win in life, we must do different things at different times for different people. In order to do different things, we must be able to adjust, and the Apostle Paul understood that. He understood that if he was going to win the world for Christ, he had to make adjustments in his life. In this passage, Paul tells us why he was such a phenomenal missionary. He went to different places, to different groups, and wherever he went, he made an impact. He is telling us how he did it, and although he’s speaking to us in the context of preaching the gospel, the principles he talks about are applicable to other endeavors in our lives. I trust that we can learn something from Paul.
Paul says in order to really break barriers — of course, he broke barriers in the gospel to places where Christ has never been heard — first, you have to adapt. You have to adapt and identify with different circumstances and different people. One of the things that happens to most of us is that we get stuck doing things in a certain way, and even if God is pointing us in another direction, we don’t go there. If God opens another opportunity, we don’t want to take advantage of it because we are fixed in what we do and are not adaptable. Paul says he learned to adapt; he identified with different people and their needs.
Then he says he learned to become, and I like how he puts it: " I became as the weak.» He didn’t say, «To the weak, I became weak.» In other words, when you have a weakness, Paul identifies with you, but he doesn’t become as weak as you are. He just doesn’t shun you. What Paul is saying is that when he found people who were weak, he didn’t separate himself from them; he tried to help them. He tried to make himself available to them. Sometimes in life, you have to become something else in order to win in the game of life. So learn to become.
The fourth thing he says is, «So that I can partake, so that I can join in.» God opens doors, and there are places where those open opportunities are present, and we need to join in. We need to partake, but for us to partake, we need to become. For us to become, we need to adapt. He says, «I do all of these things so I can win, so I can win some for Christ.»
Sometimes, if you live in a culture like Ghana or Africa, we find it very difficult to participate in economies outside our world because we are so fixed on being Ghanaian or trying to be African that we’re not able to be global. We need to break down these barriers of limitation- ethnic limitations and the notion that this is all you can do and this is all you can be. If God gives you a product, an idea, a business, or an enterprise, it should be able to break barriers. For that to happen, there will be a lot of adaptation; there will be a lot of becoming. There will be a lot of effort in trying to participate in the bigger game that others are playing. May God give you the strength to adapt so you can break the barriers that are surrounding you right now.
Let us pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for what you are doing in my life. I will become all that you want me to be. In Jesus' name, Amen and Amen. Well, I’ll catch you again tomorrow. I’m Pastor Mensa Otabil. Shalom, peace, and life to you.