Verse of the day: Exodus
3:11 But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring
the children of Israel out of Egypt?”
“Who
am I” is a question that we should all ask ourselves in our service to the
Lord. However, I also want to remind us of something that Moses overlooked in
God’s conversation with Him. Verses 7-8 read, “And the Lord said: “I have surely
seen the oppression of My people who are in
Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their
sorrows. 8 So I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the
Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and large land, to a
land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites and the
Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites.”
It was God who was going to deliver His people out of the hands of the
Egyptians, and not Moses. Moses was just a tool in God’s hands that He would
use to lead His people out of Egypt. So often, we shy away from serving because
we think that we will not be able to accomplish whatever it is that God sends
us out to do. If we are only willing to take on ministries, and service, that we
can accomplish in our own strength, then it is most likely that we are trying
to serve independent of relying on God for direction. This is when we must ask
ourselves, “Whose glory am I seeking, mine or God’s?” God does bestow gifts,
talents, and abilities upon us, but those gifts, talents, and abilities, are of
no heavenly worth if we are the ones deciding how we will use them. When Moses
made attempted to stand up for his brethren in Egypt, it did not work out quite
the way he thought it would when he did it his way (Exodus 2:11-15). We tread
dangerous waters when we decide when, what, and how, we are going to serve the
Lord, rather than waiting on God to show us. The ministry we decide upon may
even be one that would be of heavenly benefit; however, if God is not the One
leading, we are setting ourselves up for disappointment and failure. The
Apostle Paul sought to do something that would certainly bring honor to God;
however, God stopped him from doing it. In Acts 16:6-7 we read, “Now when they had gone through Phrygia and the
region of Galatia, they were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach the word in
Asia. 7 After they had come to Mysia, they tried to go into Bithynia,
but the Spirit did not permit them.” Many of us today would probably be
disappointed and give up. However, notice what God does in diverting the
Apostle, and the result of his obedience in letting God direct. God leads him
to Macedonia where the Apostle preaches the Gospel in Philippi, and Lydia is
baptized as a result. Also, note as we read Acts 16, that Luke, the Physician
who accompanied the Apostle on his journeys, whom God used to pen the books of
Luke and Acts, seems to have joined the Apostle during this detour. This is
evident by the transition from third person to first person in chapter 16. We
must always keep in mind, that our service to God must come at His direction
because He knows how to direct us, and use the talents, and abilities, He has
given us in the most effective and efficient manner. We will always accomplish
more when we allow God to do the supernatural through us, rather than settling
for the little that we are capable of in our own human strength. Although Moses
was quick in his response to God’s call, he failed to recognize that God was
the One who was going to deliver the people; thereby causing the task to seem
overwhelming, in his mind, based on his own ability to carry out the task that
lie ahead. If we desire to perform God-sized service for the Lord’s glory, then
we must let God take the lead.
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