Who Made Your Mouth?
“I’mnot eloquent enough”…
“What shall I say to them?”…
“Please send someone else!”…
There’s no one who’s a stranger to feeling under prepared, under qualified and out of their depth.
In the book of Exodus, in Chapter 3, Moses is commissioned to speak to the Israelites on God’s behalf. God first speaks to Moses through a burning bush but the fire never consumes the bush. That’s going to get someone’s attention. God continually speaks to Moses throughout the book of Exodus and whilst reading through, I’ve been struck by how clear God makes His presence each and every time. But Moses still doubts. Moses still questions whether or not he is truly capable of fulfilling the tasks God lays before him.
Distinct signs and pictures, face to face conversations even, and Moses still struggled to grasp his place, despite the clarity of the message. But burning bushes and face to face conversations aside perhaps, a lot of us are not strangers to Moses’ list of excuses I wrote at the beginning of this post. However, just like Moses, we allow fear, doubt and anxiety a louder voice than we do the quiet confidence which whispers “maybe I can do this”.
The God of the alpha and omega, the today, yesterday and tomorrow is not a God who stays silent. He spoke and He speaks! He tells us that we’re fearfully and wonderfully made, that we’re able to do what He enables us to do and most importantly, He tells us that He is God and that if He says we’re the person for the job, we probably are.
“The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.” (Exodus 14:14)
Earlier this week I posted a verse from 2 Corinthians which reminds us that in our weakness, frailty and human-ness, God’s power is made perfect. We need not struggle and stress. If we truly believe we’re called by God to do something but we still feel that sense of uncertainty, let us wait. Let us ask our loving Saviour for more clarity, for a ‘burning bush’. He is gracious… But when all we have is a whisper, we must exercise our faith muscle and take a leap.
“Then the Lord said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the Lord?” (Exodus 4:11)
It’s words like these which we need to be reminded of during seasons of doubt. As His daughters and sons, He’s equipped us for great works, He’s called us to be His ambassadors. Once we realise that fully, we can begin to be the salt and light He desires us to be. God is in control, God is our strength, our protection and our rear guard and most of all He knows us inside and out. He created our capabilities, the areas we need more of a push in. He knows us better than we know ourselves.
Before we begin to make excuses, talk about the ‘what ifs’ and give voice to the fear, we must first recognise who our God is in our lives and understand that this Powerful, Almighty Lord will be with us “until the very end of the age”.
