I can’t do this.
There must be someone better than I suited for this job.
I am not tall enough…pretty enough…skilled enough…experienced enough…worthy enough… the list goes on.
Does anyone relate to those statements?
You want to take a new step in your life but you feel (fill in the blank) holding you back. Maybe one of the above statements fill in your blank.
Often times we try and build ourselves up. Maybe we talk ourselves into being better. Maybe we look ourselves in the mirror. Like the SNL sketch: I am smart enough. I am good enough and people like me.
I love the story of Moses because I am assured of God’s greatness not my own.
Many of you may know the story of Moses from the popular movie The Ten Commandments.
Moses was a Hebrew baby boy and in his time the Pharaoh commanded all baby boys to be killed. His mother, however, saw that he was special and hid him for three months. When she could no longer keep him hidden she put him in the reeds along the bank of the Nile River.
Along came the Pharaoh’s daughter, she found him, took him into the palace and eventually adopted him as her own.
Moses was raised with all the advantages. He was wealthy. A trained warrior. He was educated. He had all the benefits a man could have.
At this time the Hebrews were slaves to the Egyptians. Moses was out among the people and noticed an Egyptian beating a Hebrew man. Moses stood up for the Hebrew and killed the Egyptian and thinking no one was looking buried Him in the sand.
The next day Moses saw two Hebrew men fighting and tried stepping in but one of the men asked Moses if he was going to kill them like he killed the Egyptian. The pharaoh found out what had happened, tried killing Moses, so Moses fled to the wilderness.
If you are wondering if God can use you at this point in your life consider Moses’s training. Moses spent the next forty years in the wilderness before God would appear to him in a burning bush. Forty years.
When God appeared to Moses in the burning bush He told Moses he had seen the oppression of His people and He wanted Moses to go to Egypt and lead His people to their own fertile and spacious land. The land “flowing with milk and honey”.
10 Now go, for I am sending you to Pharaoh. You must lead my people Israel out of Egypt.” 11 But Moses protested to God, “Who am I to appear before Pharaoh? Who am I to lead the people of Israel out of Egypt?” 12 God answered, “I will be with you. And this is your sign that I am the one who has sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God at this very mountain.” 13 But Moses protested, “If I go to the people of Israel and tell them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ they will ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what should I tell them?” 14 God replied to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM. Say this to the people of Israel: I Am has sent me to you.” 15 God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel: Yahweh. The God of your ancestors—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.
This is my eternal name,
my name to remember for all generations. -Exodus 3:10-15 (NLT)
In verse 11 Moses protests with God. Who Am I? I am not… and he immediately tries disqualifying himself as a candidate to do God’s work.
Wonder what Moses was thinking. Well, I know I was a prince and have had training, but you know God I killed a man and then they tried killing me… and… well uh… Who am I?
Can you see Moses trying to talk God out of this task? (Even if he didn’t say it out loud) Sound familiar to anyone?
God doesn’t try to give him a pep talk here. He doesn’t try telling him all the ways he is qualified for the job and how amazing he will be at it. Look back at verse 12 God answers, “I will be with you.”
Again Moses protests to God. He tries again. Well uh… if I say this then they will say, who is it that is sending you?
First of all, Moses sees a burning bush and it is not being consumed by the fire. Secondly, the VOICE OF THE LORD is coming from this bush. I don’t know about you but I tend to think I am going to act on that command from the Lord.
But would I? Do I tend to um well um… around the things God asks me to do, big or small?
Do I start to list all my shortcomings and my inadequacies? Do I start to tell God all the things that make me not worthy to do His work?
God answers him in the most amazing way. Tell them I AM WHO I AM.
He is telling Moses I have always been, I will always be.
What I don’t see is how I am able or worthy to do God’s work. Honestly, I am not.
God is not asking me to go do his work alone. He is not asking me to come with all my super talents and try to impress the world with all I can do.
God answers Moses and He tells us simply, saying I AM.
God wants us to come with a willing obedient heart. Not the best resume.
He will use us for His will and for His purposes and He will equip us to do the work that He asks us to do.
When I come to Him saying I am not… GOD reminds me it’s okay because… I AM.
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