Last nights reading brought us to the call of Moses, a familiar story to students of the Bible. God comes to Moses in the form of a burning bush and instructs him to return to Egypt. The task that the Lord gave to Moses must have surely felt overwhelming. Returning to his place of birth. Returning to his people. Returning to a place that he left as a wanted man. From the text we see that Moses was not only concerned as to what he will say to Pharaoh but also how he would convince the Hebrews that he had truly come on behalf of the the Lord. Many of Moses' excuses seem to come out of honest humility. Place yourself in Moses' sandals for a moment. Sure, at one point you were a member of the royal court of Egypt but now you are a simple shepherd of Midian. The Lord tells you to go and instruct one of the greatest leaders of the known world to allow his entire workforce to leave?! I don't know about you but I would have felt massively inadequate. But regardless of the origin of the excuses that Moses gave to the Lord, they did not sit well with the Lord. In fact, the text states that God's anger was kindled against Moses. Moses main excuse was that he was not an eloquent speaker, to which God responds, "Then the LORD said to him, “Who has made man's mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the LORD? Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak.” (Exodus 4:11–12 ESV) God answers Moses' questions by simply telling him to go and that He would take care of the rest.
How often do we, like Moses, hear the command of the Lord to go and instead of rushing to what the Lord has called us to do we sit and make excuses of why we are not qualified to do so. Sure the task may beyond what we thing we are capable of on our own but God has not called us to go on our own. You and I can always come up with excuses as why to not follow the Lord in the calling he has placed on our lives. There have been plenty of times in my life when I have told the Lord, "there is no way, I'm not smart enough, qualified enough, outgoing enough, charismatic enough, etc." Most times it truly comes out of a sense of humility (sometimes stemming from self doubt), not from a desire to not follow the Lord. However, it is still a revelation of the lack of faith and lack of trust in the God that has called. In the great commission in Matthew 28:20, Jesus tells his disciples, "And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” In Jeremiah 1:7-8, God says to a young Jeremiah, "But the LORD said to me, “Do not say, ‘I am only a youth’; for to all to whom I send you, you shall go, and whatever I command you, you shall speak. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, declares the LORD.” I am sure you have heard the quote, "God doesn't call the qualified, he qualifies the called." That is basically what He says to Moses here, "you just go and I'll take care of the rest." He is still telling that to us today.
I had the opportunity to put this into practice today. I had to make a couple of hospital visits today. Hospital visits make me a bit nervous. I am always concerned that I'm not going to know what to say or not going to be able to carry the conversation and have to encounter the dreaded awkward silence. But before I got out of the truck I prayed that God would give me the words to say. He reminded me that I was not there to minister to them in my ability but I was there to express His love to them by showing compassion and letting them know that they were being thought about and prayed for in this hard time. In both instances I was able to sit, listen, and pray for two precious people who are going through a hard time with a loved one. I left feeling blessed, because I was able to simply be a conduit of God's love. That is what God calls us to do, to be a conduit, allow him to minister to other through us. What has God called you to do that you are still offering up excuses about?
-JD
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