GodSprings - January 18, 2016

What’s My Excuse

But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” Exodus 3:11 (NIV)

The German poet Christian Hebbel once said, “Whoever wants to be a judge of human nature should study people’s excuses.” Whether it is “I forgot,” “I’m too busy,” “I had car trouble,” “There was traffic,” or the all time favorite excuse of students, “I just forgot to keep it in my bag,” we have all heard them and maybe even used them ourselves at one time or another. People fundamentally use excuses to justify their own actions or avoid getting involved in something they would prefer to stay out of.

Have you ever made an excuse to God? Have you ever sought to justify your actions before God or attempted to offer an excuse to avoid involvement in some opportunity that He was making available to you?

Moses’ reaction to this phenomenal opportunity that God placed before him was to make an excuse: “Who am I?” Perhaps Moses was thinking he was too old, or perhaps his past failures haunted him, or perhaps he had fear of being rejected. I suspect that all of the above, and more, that led Moses to offer God a series of excuses.

God took the time to reassure Moses that He would be with Him, that He would guide Him, and that He would give Him the words to speak and the miracles to perform. In short, God was telling Moses, “I will take care of everything.” All Moses had to do was trust God.

We need to keep in mind here that Moses’ reluctance to do God’s will was not a rejection of God’s will, but the starting point for Moses. Through Moses’ reluctance he recognized his weaknesses, was able to admit his failures, could see his inadequacies, and was able to understand his need for God’s help. God used Moses’ excuse to reveal to him that who Moses was did not matter; what mattered was who God is!

Let us recognize our weaknesses, because the reality is, we all have weaknesses and limitations. But we cannot allow them to keep us from what God wants to do in and through our lives. If we allow our excuses to get in the way of following God, then we are demonstrating a lack of faith in God’s ability to accomplish His plans and purposes through us.

Do not let reluctance turn to rejection. Do not let inadequacy lead into inactivity. God gives us what we need, in His perfect time, in order to accomplish what He wills. What excuse is holding us back from obeying God and serving Him with all our heart? Do not let excuses keep us from experiencing the blessings that God wants to give us.