It's Not About What I Can Do

It’s Not About What I Can Do

What an incredible season of life this is! The past couple of months have been full of evidence that God still uses jars of clay for His purposes. He has delighted to use me to speak truth and be a bold witness at work. He has rejoiced in using me to teach others about the glory of Jesus Christ which is like that of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. And He has graciously given me the privilege and responsibility of undertaking my first effort at preaching the Word of God.

But even more than those blessings, God is showing me something so precious that I can hardly believe it. Now, at first glance, it certainly doesn’t appear precious. It is disheartening and crippling and humiliating…until I remember what His Word says.

In this season, I’ve often felt like Moses when God first appeared to him in the burning bush with His proposal for Moses to save Israel from oppression in Egypt. We can see the story in Exodus 3-4.

Moses sees a bush that is aflame but not being consumed so he decides to go check out this miraculous chemistry experiment. I don’t think he was expecting the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to call out to him from the bush, since, when he heard the voice of God, he hid his face in fear! What follows is a conversation in which God tells Moses that He also has seen the oppression of Israel and plans to do something about it.

I can imagine Moses being really excited about this until verse 10 when God says, “Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.” I resemble Moses’s reply. “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?” In other words, “God, I’m on board with your plan to free Your people, but don’t think you ought to use me. I’d rather you get someone else!” Then for the next twenty-five verses or so, we see God encouraging Moses followed by Moses giving another reason why he can’t possibly free God’s people.

I think we know how it turns out. Moses ends up going but brings his brother, Aaron, as the eloquent speaker to avoid having to speak to Israel directly. God uses Moses. God parts the Red Sea as Moses lifts up his staff. God gives Moses the Ten Commandments to give to Israel. Amazing stuff! And all of it through a guy who labeled himself incompetent, weak, and just not up to the task.

What is becoming more and more encouraging to me in this season is that I am like Moses! I don’t have it all together. I don’t know how God’s people could ever rally around anything I have to say. And while sometimes I feel like an eloquent speaker, most of the time I feel more like Milton from the movie Office Space (that’s a mumbling joke).

I ask this question. If I had it all together, would I really reach a point of appreciating God’s work and the dynamic, miraculous power of His Word and Holy Spirit? Or would I simply walk around patting myself on the back for my charisma or my great oratory skills? Those are some great things to be proud of if it was all about me.

But it’s not. It’s about Jesus Christ and His name being known in all the earth. It’s about the redemption that He came to earth to secure for all of His people. It’s about the joy that only comes from being in the presence of God and seeing the face of Jesus. It’s about the forgiveness we experience through Christ’s own blood. He must increase, but I must decrease.

I should jump up and down with glee that He lets me be along for the ride! And to think that He lets me do some talking and loving and forgiving in His name!

Now here is the sweetest part of Exodus 3-4 that I’ve discovered. Before God appears to Moses, we read of Moses killing an Egyptian who is beating a Hebrew, one of Moses’s own people. The next day, Moses sees two Hebrews fighting and tries to intercede to make peace. Moses is burdened for his people. He already has the desire to deliver them on an individual level. All God does is come along and greatly expand Moses’ idea of deliverance.

We can see this in 3:7-9.

Then the Lord said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians…And now, behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. (emphasis: mine)

In essence, God is telling Moses that He has seen the same oppression that Moses has and He has the same burden for Israel that Moses has. Only His vision and burden are God-sized!

So, instead of asking myself, “Why me?” I am beginning to say, “Why not me?” when faced with doubts and fears and unbelief. I too have a burden for God’s people. I too have a burden for the oppressed and the broken and the afflicted. And this burden is God’s before it is mine.

Whatever it looks like, I want my response to be “Here I am. Send me!”

Now, my friend, I ask you. What burdens do you have? Are these burdens God’s before they are yours? If so, God wants you to be a part of the solution. Too big? Seems impossible? All the more reason for God to use a timid, sinful person like you or me so that His power and glory will be all the more clearly seen!

Remember…It was His burden first.