Speaking to the Soul – November 30

A short reading and prayers for today

But Moses again pleaded, “Lord, please! Send someone else.”
Exodus 4:13 NLT

I wonder if you can identify with Moses. I certainly can. Time and again God has clearly asked me to do something and, like Moses, I have pleaded with him to find someone else. Moses would quickly have recognised that going back to Egypt was going to be hard enough, let alone to become the leader of his people and negotiating with the mighty Pharaoh. Anyone would have shaken at the knees to have taken on such a role.

The reasons that people use for objecting to God’s call are many. Some people, like Moses, are overwhelmed by the challenge and feel that their lack of skills makes them a poor choice. Others object to God’s call because they feel that the job they have been offered is beneath them. God calls them to be involved in youth work when they would much rather be in the worship band; or God calls them to do cleaning in the church when they would rather become a leader.

What Moses had to learn was that God knew what he was doing. He was going to be one of the most important leaders in the whole history of the people of Israel. It was going to be through Moses that God delivered the law to his people, which was going to provide the framework for their life and worship. Moses simply looked at himself and observed his failures and disqualifications. God looked at him and saw the man of his choice, who he would equip to be exactly the right leader at the right time.

The challenge we face day by day is to listen to God so carefully that we hear what he wants us to do. Whether it is a high profile role, or a hidden and low profile role, if it is what God is calling us to do, it is the most important job in the world.

QUESTION

How are you seeking to discover what God wants you to do?

PRAYERS

Lord God, thank you that our lives have meaning and purpose when we are committed to you. Help us to know what you are calling us to do today. Amen

Almighty God,
Give us grace to cast away the works of darkness
and to put on the armour of light
now in the time of this mortal life
in which your Son Jesus Christ came to us in great humility;
that on the last day
when he shall come again in his glorious majesty
to judge the living and the dead,
we may rise to the life immortal;
through him who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.