God always challenges us to believe Him and do what He calls us to do. God wants to accomplish God-sized tasks in and through us.
He wants to do more than we can ask or imagine. He also wants to show how great He is. This happened to Moses in Exodus 4. God is calling Moses to be God’s spokesperson in freeing the Israelites from Egypt. He wants to deliver them because no one else can and because He wants them to see who He is – the covenant-keeping, powerful God who is able to deliver them.
Moses, however, is like us. He wonders if God is really able to do this. He wonders if the people of Israel will really believe Him when he says God sent Him. He wonders if he’ll be able to do what God is asking. His challenges to really believe God can help us to see our challenges and see God’s answers.
First, Moses needs the grace to see God’s character. “I am who I am†– the God who cannot be manipulated still makes promises and keeps them. He tells Moses that He as the living God saw and heard Israel’s plight and remembered His promises and gives His plan for not only freeing the Israelites but repaying them for their hard, unjust labor. Moses needs to see God this way so that he can believe God when He calls Moses to believe Him. Moses didn’t deserve this answer but God graciously gives it to Him. We need to see this as well. God still makes promises and keeps them. He kept them for Moses, David, Ruth, Jeremiah, and Daniel. He’ll keep them for us as well.
Second, Moses needs the grace to be confident of God’s power on his behalf. He questions whether the Israelites will believe him when he claims to be sent as God’s spokersperson. God gives him three signs of His power. He turns Moses’ staff into a snake and so claims Moses’ staff as His own. He turns Moses’ hand into a diseased hand and then back to a healthy one. He tells Moses that He will turn a portion of the Nile into blood when Moses gets to Egypt. Whenever we face a God-sized task, we need confidence in God’s power as well. God graciously has given us evidence of His power. His Word gives us many evidences of His power in history. The greatest example of this is the resurrection. Over 500 people were eyewitnesses to the fact that Jesus Christ rose from the dead. This is God’s greatest example of deliverance and power. We must point ourselves and others to this example of God’s power to deliver. We must be in the Word to remind ourselves of God’s great power on our behalf. Another sign of His power is what He done in our lives: forgiving our sins, renewing our minds, cleansing our lives, giving us a future and a hope. This is not something we could have done on our own. God’s power is evident in His work in us. A third sign is what He has done and is doing in our church. So many people are in our church because God’s mighty power worked in their lives – delivering them, helping them, protecting them. It is good to remember these stories and use them as a means to help us see God’s power and grace.
Third, Moses needs the grace to see God’s grace. He wonders if he’ll be able to do and speak well enough to accomplish what God wants. But God says, “I made you. I can make you effective. I can teach you.†Moses needs to realize that God will actually be doing the heavy lifting anyway. He just needs to be obedient. That’s the beauty of grace. The challenge to faith tries to focus on self – “I’m not good enough.†God says, “I’m God and I will make you what I want you to be.†How great to know that God’s grace covers our weaknesses, is demonstrated through our weaknesses, and overcomes our weaknesses to turn them into beautiful things for His glory. Never say to yourself, “God must want to use someone else.†God always wants to use you, esp. in areas you feel weak or stupid, and transform you into something beautiful so that you will give all the glory to Him.
As Campus Baptist Church seeks to glorify God and faces an uncertain future, we must remember: He will keep His promises, He will show His might on our behalf, and He will give us His grace in our weakness. Praise be to God for His indescribable gift! Let’s see God accomplish some God-sized tasks this fall by believing and obeying Him.