But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” And God said, “I will be with you….”…“What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, ‘The LORD did not appear to you’?”…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.”…But Moses said, “Pardon your servant, Lord. Please send someone else.” (Exo 3:11-12, 4:1,10,13)
Have you ever felt like God can’t use you because of your struggles and weaknesses? Or that you’ve messed it up too big to do great things for the Lord? Good news! God is not looking for people who are self-sufficient and have it all together. He is actually looking for broken individuals who can hubmly admit they are weak. Seem counter-intuitive? Welcome to the kingdom of heaven.
Moses was filled with fear and self-doubt. Moses tells God that he simply is not qualified for the task. What if the Hebrew people don’t believe him? What about the fact that he is not a good speaker? I don’t know about you, but that is not the Moses I learned about in Sunday school. The Moses I learned about while being nestled comfortably on the floor and stuffed with teddy grahams was a fearless leader. You know - the one who parted the Red Sea and performed all those miracles. The truth is, Moses was a courageous leader, but it was a growing process.
Moses, like all of us, had a past. He had murdered a man. Then the next day, while he was out he found two Hebrew men fighting. He tried to break up the fight and exercise his authority. The response? “Who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian?” (Exo 2:14). Knowledge of his crime spread, forcing him to flee for his life. Now…here he was, looking after sheep in a desert. Moses’ response to God’s calling makes sense. His experience told him that if the Israelites didn’t listen to him then, they wouldn’t listen to him now. Fortunately, when it comes to God, our pasts do not disqualify us.
Where Moses was weak, God was strong. The Apostle Paul also learned this truth. When Paul pleaded with God to remove his weakness, God told him “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 cor 12:9). Paul goes on to say, “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me” (2 cor 12:10). He rejoices in the truth that he “can do all this through Him who gives me strength” (Phil 4:13).
You see, in the areas where you are weak, God is strong for you. Far from disqualifying you, weaknesses are a chance for God to show up in your life. God is not looking for people who can say, “Look at what I did!” He is looking for people who will say, “Look at what God did!” The areas of your life where you struggle the most and feel most weak are the areas where God has set you apart for His purposes. Let that sink in for a moment.
For example, if you struggle with sexual purity, guess what? You are probably set apart to be used by God in calling others to purity because God will be strong for you in that area and the power of His Spirit will enable you to obey Him. Then you can serve as an example to others that it is possible to be sexually pure. Or maybe your weakness is not a particular sin. It could be a hardship, difficulty, or persecution. Or you could be like Moses, whose weakness was that he was not a good speaker. But again, God will show up in this area of your life, and others will look at you and say, “how were you able do that/go through that?” And then you will have the answer: God and His power.
