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He’s had forty years of obscurity and silence in God’s school of the desert. He’s become a nobody. So when the call comes, his only response is a quiet and reluctant, “I’m here.”
Believe it or not, that’s all God wanted to hear. It’s still true today. That’s all He wants to hear from you when He speaks. Don’t kid yourself; He’s not impressed with you; He’s checking out your humility, your sensitivity, your availability.
God saw this moment as so holy and precious that He wanted nothing between Moses and Himself. “Take those sandals off, Moses, and stand on the hot ground.”
At the bush, Moses was hearing a voice saying, “Remember Me? I’m the One who told you that you would redeem My people Israel someday. I’m the God of your fathers.”
God does not speak and ask our advice regarding His plan. God makes declarations; He doesn’t open up the scene for a rap session or a dialogue. He doesn’t call in a blue-ribbon panel of consultants to suggest viable options. He speaks, and that is that.
I am convinced in my heart that Moses wasn’t hearing God correctly. Moses, I believe, thought God intended him to be the deliverer of Israel, and that blew all his circuit breakers. But God didn’t tell him that! God told him that he would be an instrument in the deliverance, but God Himself would be the deliverer. Huge difference. In God’s calling, He has a plan; but He never expects you to carry out that plan. He’s going to pull it off. He simply wants you to be the instrument of action. After all, it is His reputation that’s at stake, not yours.
And how wonderful that God personally cares about those things that worry us and prey upon our thoughts. He cares about them more than we care about them. Not a single nagging, aching, worrisome, stomach-tensing, blood-pressure-raising thought escapes His notice.
We could call any work done in the will of God “the work of righteousness.” And in doing that work, you will be surrounded by peace.
The best framework for the Lord God to do His most ideal work is when things are absolutely impossible and we feel totally unqualified to handle it. That’s His favorite circumstance. Those are His ideal working conditions.
Time after time, He brings us to our absolute end and then proves Himself faithful. That, my friend, is not only the story of my life, it’s the story of the Bible in a nutshell.
Until your eyes are fixed on the Lord, you will not be able to endure those days that go from bad to worse.
Circumstances that turn against us force dependence.
Circumstances that force dependence teach us patience.
Circumstances that teach us patience make us wise.
could
Could he have?
First, when God judges, He does a thorough job of it.
Second, it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
God has no desire to leave us alone in our pain and distress. Habakkuk once cried out to God, “In wrath, remember mercy.”
Let me put this in terms of our involvement with God’s worldwide program. The normal question I hear is, “How do I know that God wants me in cross-cultural ministry?” Here’s a question that may be more to the point. Ask yourself, “How do you know He doesn’t?”
“No, Moses, I want my people to learn that I will fight their battles for them.
He didn’t say, as most are prone to say, “God helps those who help themselves.” People think that despicable saying comes from the Bible, but it doesn’t. It’s from the pit. No, God helps the helpless!
God’s counsel is just the opposite. Don’t be afraid. Stand still. Watch Him work. Keep quiet. It’s then that He does it. He takes over! He handles it exactly opposite the way we’d do it. The Lord just taps His foot, waiting for us to wait.
The crossing of the Red Sea is to the Old Testament what the Resurrection is to the New.
God put truths into the Old Testament so that we in this era of grace might draw out some profound truths that impact life this very day.
It takes tight places to break lifetime habits
When hemmed in on all sides, the only place to look is up
If the Lord is to get the glory, He must do the fighting.
Red Seas open and close at the Lord’s command, and not until.
Coming to the Red Sea is just as much a part of His plan as crossing it.
We live in light of some dreamy past leisure or pleasure, when in actuality God continues to show Himself strong all along the way. We feel that because we have endured the current test, we shouldn’t have to experience it again.
Are you prone to complaining? Remember, God is the one who has made your circumstances to be what they are. Don’t blame someone else.
It takes a heavenly appetite to enjoy a heavenly diet.
As Jethro stands watching this human zoo and stroking his beard, two insightful questions emerge in his mind—questions he asks his son-in-law at the first opportunity. 1. “What is this thing that you’re doing?” 2. “Why do you do it all alone?” His first question relates to priorities. His second relates to personnel.
The church can never succeed without courage.
And what happens when a person does too much, works too many hours, and stays at it too many days a week? To begin with, he loses his distinction.
The pulpit weakens whenever a man turns to secondary areas and begins to be consumed by them. Of course, these things must be done by qualified people. But they cannot be done by one man.
The Christian worker is a strange breed. He or she wants it to look as if the work is terribly hard. In fact, the more difficult and strained the look, the better.
Just because you go into the ministry doesn’t mean you should look as if you’ve just finished your last funeral, and you’re next in line.
Those vocational servants of Christ ought to have broad tastes and interests beyond their basic calling, enjoy their families, enjoy times away, and rejoice in good things.
it’s almost scandalous to say such things, isn’t it? Why isn’t it being said? Because we operate under an eighteenth-century concept of so-called piety in the ministry that simply is not biblical. It is no sign of spirituality that you work fifteen to eighteen hours a day, seven days a week, and never take a vacation. No one is attracted to an unsmiling, always-grim-looking individual, especially if he never takes a break to enjoy life.
Please don’t misunderstand me. Ministry is not an easy calling. There are times when you must work longer than you should. And those times can occur back to back. But we don’t need to remind most pastors of the need to work harder. They need a reminder of another sort. “You’re making your job harder than it should be. Share the load.
Separate the “essential” from the “additional”
“The principle is that God assumes responsibility for enabling His man to fulfill every task to which He has appointed him. Now there are some self-imposed tasks which others can do better than we, and we should relinquish them. But even should they do them worse, we should still relinquish them—a severe test for the perfectionist!”
Restrain yourself more, involve yourself less
God’s servants are not exempt from natural laws
“You will break the bow if you keep it always bent.”
Efficiency increases as we relinquish
it’s about time that you backed off and took a long look at your short life.
God, however, does not quickly run into someone’s presence—nor must we thoughtlessly barge into His presence.
1. Be willing to obey
