“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? Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak’” (Exodus 4:11-12).
Moses’ life is filled with one major event after another. He grew up as a prince of Egypt, but after forty years, he fled to the wilderness and became a shepherd. He was there for another forty years, and he likely thought he would spend the rest of his life taking care of sheep. But God had other plans for him. When he was eighty years old, God called him to lead the people of Israel out of their bondage in Egypt, taking them to the land promised to Abraham centuries before.
But there was just one problem. Namely, Moses didn’t want to go. He’d left Egypt because he’d murdered a man; and furthermore, there was no guarantee Pharaoh or even the Israelites would listen to him. Moses brought up every excuse he could think of to get out of this calling, finally insisting that he didn’t speak well. God, however, wasn’t about to let that be an excuse. He reminded Moses that He is the One Who created the mouth; just because Moses had trouble speaking didn’t mean God couldn’t use him. Nothing Moses brought up was too great for God to counter with a display of His power. Eventually, Moses had to give in.
Many of us are a lot like Moses. When God calls us to something, we instantly come up with a thousand reasons illustrating why it’s a bad idea. We easily convince ourselves that it’s not worth pursuing, and we expect God to come to the same conclusion. But in reality, we’re fooling ourselves. God already knew our weaknesses when He called us. He’s not afraid of them; in fact, He plans to work through them to demonstrate His own glory. In a word, His power is inconvenient. When all we want to do is get out of this uncomfortable thing God is nudging us towards, He explains how any weaknesses we might have are actually just part of the journey. He can and will work through them. There is nothing too difficult for Him. He is far more powerful than us, and we finally submit to His will, we will see Him work through our failures in remarkable ways. He did so with Moses; we should expect nothing different in our own lives.