Dear Friend,
A couple weeks ago we began the book of Exodus in the Bible study I’m leading. I enjoy this book for numerous reasons. One of the main ones is watching God deliver His people out of slavery through Moses. It’s a wonderful foreshadow of our deliverer, Jesus, freeing us from sin and anything else that enslaves us.
I’m grateful that the Lord not only desires a relationship with us, but freedom as well from those things that entangle us as we walk with Him. One area God is helping me find greater freedom from is insecurity. I still encounter it from time to time, but it’s not as devastating as it once was.
Recently my insecurity has been trying to visit me again, as I’m preparing to do some things that are new and important to me. I’ve kept the doors locked, so she can’t easily get in, but I wouldn’t put it past her to try sneaking in through a window. She’s a persistent little thing sometimes. But back to Exodus.
I was working on the lesson yesterday and a certain passage struck me. I was studying in chapter three where Moses comes across the burning bush. It’s at this time God tells Moses He wants him to go to Egypt and free His people. I had been trying to ignore Miss Insecurity while I was studying, but it wasn’t easy as she had resorted to banging on my office window. As I continued to work on the lesson as best I could, I came across the following passage:
But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?” Exodus 3:11 ESV
Boy, do I understand that sentiment. I turned to Miss Insecurity and yelled at her through the window, “So you wouldn’t leave Moses alone either, huh?!” She shrugged her shoulders and sheepishly smiled. I turned back to my Bible, curious as to where God was leading me. Moses’ question was all too timely and relevant to what I was experiencing to be mere coincidence.
I recently asked myself a question similar to Moses’ “Who am I that I should…?” Have you asked that question? It’s so easy to look at ourselves and see our lack when we are faced with a challenge… even one that we want to take on and God has asked us to. That is where I find myself now. Did you know that 40 years earlier Moses believed that he would be part of God’s plan to deliver the Israelites? Check out what Acts chapter seven has to say about Moses:
When he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brothers, the children of Israel. And seeing one of them being wronged, he defended the oppressed man and avenged him by striking down the Egyptian. He supposed that his brothers would understand that God was giving them salvation by his hand, but they did not understand. Acts 7:23-25 ESV
Things had changed since then, and now at 80 years of age Moses questioned his role in this plan that had been so clear to him decades earlier. There can be things we have wanted to do for a while, and when we are finally faced with them we are overwhelmed or found questioning our qualifications. Other times we simply struggle with our value in general terms. Either way....
I continued to read in Exodus and was intrigued by God’s response to Moses’ question. In fact, God’s response so spoke to my heart that I invited Him to go for a walk with me right then and there that He might expound on what He was saying. Miss Insecurity gets uncomfortable hanging out with God, so we had no problem exiting the premises and leaving her behind, sulking. God reiterated to me what He said to Moses:
He said, “But I will be with you,...” Exodus 3:12a ESV
First, I was surprised at what God DIDN’T say. He handled this situation differently than I had so many times when I was comforting a discouraged friend. Did you notice? God didn’t remind Moses of all the great things he learned, did, and said in times gone by. God didn’t reminisce about Moses’ past accomplishments. God didn’t try to build Moses up, compliment him, or convince him he could do it. From what the following verses say, there were probably things God could’ve reminded Moses of.
Pharaoh’s daughter adopted him and brought him up as her own son. And Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and he was mighty in his words and deeds. Acts 7:21b-22 ESV
God didn’t look back with him. Nor did God turn Moses’ attention inward to himself. Those strategies don’t offer a long-lasting fix. They make us feel good for the moment, but they wear off when we encounter another situation we aren’t sure of or when we run into our limitations yet once again. It was okay for Moses to acknowledge his limitations, as it created an opportunity for God’s sufficiency to be realized.
As God encourages me to take on new things, there are moments when I look at myself, and Miss Insecurity says, “Who are you to do those things?” It’s okay for me to understand my lack, as long as I don’t get stuck there, because that’s where a relationship with Miss Insecurity grows. My past accomplishments offer little comfort or assurance, but the words God spoke to Moses do. And with those words God is helping me keep moving.
So what DID God say to Moses? He told Moses that He would be with him. Everything Moses would need or need to be could be found in God. Since God would be with Him, Moses would be good. And as we returned to my house, God whispered that I would be okay as well.
It isn’t about who we are or what we are capable of, but who is WITH us, and what HE is capable of. Why should I strive to become secure in myself when I can be secure in someone so much greater? (Did you hear that? Yeah, me neither. No more banging on the window.)
May we acknowledge our need, find our sufficiency in Him, and be obedient to what He is calling us to.
Enjoying the peace and quiet,
Candace
