Are You Sure, Lord?
“Moses said to the Lord, “Pardon your servant, Lord. I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue.” The Lord said to him, “Who gave human beings their mouths? Who makes them deaf or mute? Who gives them sight or makes them blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.” - Exodus 4:10-12 (NIV)
I have asked God some version of the same question several times this week: Are You sure?
Are You sure this is where You are leading me? Are You sure this is what You want me to do? Are You sure You have the right person?
Because, respectfully, Lord, I am just a girl. I have no idea what I am doing!
Moses had a much bigger assignment in front of him when he asked essentially the same thing. God had called him to return to Egypt, stand before Pharaoh, and lead the Israelites out of slavery. Moses responded with question after question: “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh?” (Exodus 3:11, NIV). What if they ask who sent me? What if they don’t believe me? What if they don’t listen?
By Exodus 4, Moses gets even more specific about why he believes God has the wrong man:
“Pardon your servant, Lord. I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue.”
Exodus 4:10 (NIV)
Moses isn’t imagining a weakness. Speaking does not come easily to him, and God is sending him to speak before Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. The thing God is asking him to do seems to require the very ability Moses believes he does not have.
God doesn’t respond by telling Moses that he has underestimated himself.
“Who gave human beings their mouths? Who makes them deaf or mute? Who gives them sight or makes them blind? Is it not I, the LORD? Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.”
Exodus 4:11–12 (NIV)
Who gave human beings their mouths?
Moses is telling God what he cannot do, and God reminds Moses who made him. The answer to Moses’s inadequacy isn’t Moses. It’s God.
That runs against so much of what we hear when we feel incapable of something. We are told to believe in ourselves. Trust ourselves. Remember how capable we are. Build our confidence until we finally feel ready.
God doesn’t tell Moses to believe in himself. He tells Moses, in effect, Remember who I am.
God is the One who made his mouth. God is the One sending him. God is the One who promises, “I will help you speak.” God is the One who will teach him what to say.
Moses’s responsibility is just to go!
We see the same response when God calls Gideon. Gideon tells Him, “My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family” (Judges 6:15, NIV). God’s answer is simple: “I will be with you” (Judges 6:16, NIV).
Jeremiah responds to God’s call by saying, “I do not know how to speak; I am too young” (Jeremiah 1:6, NIV). God tells him, “Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you” (Jeremiah 1:8, NIV).
Over and over, people tell God why they are inadequate. Over and over, God points them back to Himself.
Not you are enough.
I will be with you.
That also changes the way we understand the abilities we already have. The things we call our talents, strengths, skills, or natural abilities didn’t originate with us. Paul asks, “What do you have that you did not receive?” (1 Corinthians 4:7, NIV). James tells us that “every good and perfect gift is from above” (James 1:17, NIV).
The things we are able to do are gifts from the same God who calls us to use them. And when His call takes us beyond what we already know how to do, our confidence still rests in the same place.
God does not promise that we will always feel qualified. Moses certainly didn’t. He doesn’t promise that obedience will suddenly make every weakness disappear. In fact, Moses continues protesting until God appoints Aaron to help him speak (Exodus 4:14–16). Sometimes God’s provision looks like ability. Sometimes it looks like growth. Sometimes it looks like another person standing beside us.
But the provision still comes from Him.
Hebrews closes with a prayer that God would “equip you with everything good for doing his will” and that He would “work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ” (Hebrews 13:21, NIV).
God calls. God equips. God works in us.
That has been sitting with me this week because there are places in my own life where I have been asking God, Really? Are You sure?
I don’t know why He seems to be leading me toward certain things. I don’t know what they will look like six months from now. Some of them make me very aware of what I don’t know, what I haven’t done, and where I don’t feel particularly qualified (or qualified at all).
My instinct is to look at myself and decide whether I have enough to handle whatever is ahead.
Exodus 4 keeps turning my attention somewhere else:
Who made your mouth?
The God who calls us already knows what He has given us. He knows where we are strong. He knows where we are weak. He knows what we know and what we still need to learn. None of that information surprises Him.
So when I find myself saying, Lord, I am just a girl. I genuinely do not know what I am doing here, I don’t need to follow it with a speech about how capable I actually am.
Maybe the better response is simply:
But You are God. And if You are leading me, You already know what I will need along the way and when I get there.
bytaylormcgee
