And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you. – Exodus 3:14
It seems like everyone, from time to time, finds excuses that hinder our relationship with Jesus Christ. So many times we don’t serve God because we have a “good” reason that we can’t. Even Moses, when approached by the Lord, had excuses that he couldn’t follow the task that God had laid before him. See, Satan loves it when we make up excuses, because that means we aren’t following God’s will for our lives. God has specific plans for each and every one of us. When we decide that we can’t follow God’s plan, Satan wins. Let’s look at the story of Moses for example.
Let’s start at the beginning: Moses kept his Father-in-law’s flock. He led the flock to the backside of the desert, to Mount Horeb. While there, Moses sees a burning bush. He approaches it, and The angel of the LORD speaks to him. Moses is asked to take off his shoes, and then he is told that God has come to deliver Israel. Imagine Moses’s surprise and excitement! Then, God tells Moses that he is the one that is being sent to do the job. Wow! Now imagine Moses’s excitement as it turns to fear! What happened next is classic in even our lives today; Moses gave the Lord excuses. Let’s look for a few minutes at the excuses Moses gave the Lord. I believe we will see that often times, we use the same excuses! In this story, Moses used five excuses as to why he couldn’t serve. Let’s look today at the first two excuses:
Moses’s first excuse: “I am not worthy for the task.” “Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh…?” – Moses told God that he was not worthy enough for such a monumental task. Moses knew he had made some mistakes in his life, and he didn’t think he was good enough to serve God on this level. Now this excuse, it seems, is a good, righteous excuse. I mean, after all, we aren’t worthy of anything, it is God that is worthy of all! However, this excuse is used too often, and couldn’t be farther from the truth. What did God tell Moses when he said he wasn’t worthy? God replied, Certainly, I will be with thee…” God tells Moses that He will be with him every step of the way! God is all knowing, all powerful, and all seeing. The Creator of the universe has a plan, and it involves you! God doesn’t make mistakes! If He has something for you to do, and you say you aren’t “good” enough to do it, than you are limiting and doubting God! He has promised to never leave us or forsake us. So often we say, I’m not worthy…”, but could it maybe be that we are just scared of what is to come? This excuse sounds so good to our ears, and we can actually make ourselves believe it! When God calls us to something, that means He will be with us til the end of it. With God with you, you CAN do it!
Moses’s second excuse: “I don’t know what to say. I don’t know enough. I don’t even know Your name! When they ask me a question, “What shall I say unto them?” – Here is another classic excuse that we as followers of Christ use when we are scared. “I don’t know what to say!” How many times do we use that excuse so we don’t have to witness to that man in line behind us at Wal-Mart? How many times do use this excuse to get us out of telling our friends about Jesus? God told Moses, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel.” See, Moses didn’t have to worry about what he should say, God told him what to say! It’s the same with us, we don’t have to worry about our tongue getting tied up, or about messing up what we are saying. God will tell us what to say! God here tells Moses His name: I AM THAT I AM. This is the name translated Jahovah, Yahweh, or LORD. Moses didn’t have to worry about telling people who sent him, God said the “I AM” had sent him! Then God tells Moses His message. “The LORD God of your fathers, of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob appeared unto me and sent me to you to declare, I have seen your afflictions in Egypt and will bring you up to a land flowing with milk and honey.” God not only told Moses who He was, He now tells Moses EXACTLY what to say when He gets there! All Moses has to do is repeat what the Lord has told him! Easy, right? Now, isn’t that our job, to sweetly echo the Gospel call? All we have to do is simply repeat the message that Jesus asked us to tell the world! We must simply share the Gospel with the world! All this being said, this excuse doesn’t seem to hold water either…
This is two out of five excuses that Moses uses with the Lord. Check back in the next day or two, I will be posting the other excuses then. I pray that we will realize that our excuses are nothing in the Lord’s eyes! We may be able to fool ourselves, or our Pastor, or of friend’s when we don’t serve God, but we can’t fool God! Let’s stop the excuses, and start the service!
If you have any questions, comments, or just have something you want to share, comment below, or email me at romans58ministries@yahoo.com. God bless!
For HIM,
Dan
1 comment:
I love how gently God deals with the excuses though, both then and now.
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