Not me Lord !

Not me Lord!

Philip Yancey in his book “Where is God when it hurts” Describes what it would be like for us to have a full recollection of our birth experience. He paints a graphic picture with these words. “Your world is dark, safe, secure. You are bathed in warm liquid, cushioned from shock. You do nothing for yourself; you are fed automatically, and a murmuring heartbeat assures you that someone larger than you fills all your needs. Your life consists of simple waiting--you're not sure what to wait for, but any change seems far away and scary. You meet no sharp objects, no pain, no threatening adventures. A fine existence.

One day you feel a tug. The walls are falling in on you. Those soft cushions are now pulsing and beating against you, crushing you downwards. Your body is bent double, your limbs twisted and wrenched. You're falling, upside down. For the first time in your life, you feel pain. You're in a sea of rolling matter. There is more pressure, almost too intense to bear. Your head is squeezed flat, and you are pushed harder, harder into a dark tunnel. Oh, the pain. Noise. More pressure.

You hurt all over. You hear a groaning sound and an awful, sudden fear rushes in on you. It is happening--your world is collapsing. You're sure it's the end. You see a piercing, blinding light. Cold, rough hands pull at you. A painful slap. Waaahhhh! Congratulations, you have just been born.”

In all of our human existence, the nine months that a child spends in the mother’s womb are the most secured and hassle free moments of its life. God has designed the human body in such a way that we are brought into this world just at the right time. In one sense God squeeze us out of our comfort zone to bring us into this harsh world, where we will encounter pain and difficulties for the rest of our life. As comfortable as it is for a child to be in its mother’s womb, that is not the place where it is meant to be all its life. To experience life it has to give up its secured, comfortable surrounding and come into a world that is unknown and difficult.

God squeezes us out of our comfort zone for our own good, and what is true of our physical growth is also true for our spiritual growth. Time and again God shakes up things in our lives to bring us out of our comfort zone. Now what is a comfort zone? In the book, The Dream Giver, Bruce Wilkinson explains, “A comfort zone is our cosy quilt of relationships. It’s the padding of routines that make us feel good. It’s the security fence of acceptable behaviour. It’s the steel mesh of our past successes and failures” In short a place where we are in control. Often God calls us to let go of that control and trust in Him. When we start to think that ‘life is good’ we need to be reminded that ‘God is good’ even when life is difficult.

Moses in his comfort zone
The call of Moses in Exodus 3 is a perfect example of how God urges His people to step out of their comfort zone and go into unchartered waters trusting in Him. To understand Moses’ comfort zone we need to place this chapter in its historical context.
Exodus chapter 1 describes the oppression of the Israelites by the Egyptians who were intimidated by their numbers. (Exodus 1: 9)
Exodus chapter 2 is about the birth of Moses, of how God in His providence not only spared Moses’ life but also brought him up in Pharaoh’s palace. As the story unfolds, although Moses was brought up in the Pharaoh’s palace, he never forgot who he was. One day he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, Moses intervened and killed the Egyptian hiding his body in the sand. The very next day he saw two Hebrews fighting and when he tried to settle their dispute, one of them turned around and asked him “Are you going to kill me, as you killed the Egyptian”. Moses, afraid that his secret was known fled to Midian. Here he married a woman by the name of Zipporah and had a son through her. For the next forty years Moses looked after his father-in-law’s flock. He had comfortably settled into the role of a husband, a father and a shepherd. His previous life as an Egyptian prince was a distant memory now, but soon all that was going to change.
In Exodus 3 God appeared to Moses in a burning bush and told him, that He had heard the cry of the Israelites and had now come to rescue them. Moses may have been thrilled when he heard this. Finally, after all those years, God was going to intervene and rescue His people. So far so good; but what God said next must have knocked the day lights out of Moses. In Ex. 3: 10 God says to Moses, “So now, go I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt”. Moses’ first thought may have been ‘why me? I am happy with my life, why would I go to a place from where I escaped as a fugitive? In chapter 4:10 Moses expresses this out loud, when he says to God “O Lord, please send someone else to do it”.

So often we like Moses refuse to move beyond our comfort zone, hoping that God will call someone else to step out. We are excited when we see God at work, but we would rather be a spectator than a participant in God’s kingdom. Although Moses gave excuses after excuses for not going, God did not give up on him, but worked through each and every one of the excuses, and finally convinced Moses to step out in faith. As we see how God dealt with Moses there are three principles that we need to remember when God squeezes us out of our comfort zone.

When God sends — He sustains
Moses’ first excuse was his own sense of inadequacy, in Ex. 3: 11 Moses says to God “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” In response to this God says to Moses “I will be with you…” (Ex. 3:12) What God was essentially doing was, shifting Moses’ attention from his own inadequacy to God’s sufficiency. In other words God was telling Moses, that the success of his mission depended not in his ability but on God’s sovereignty.

In fact it is interesting to observe how God explained the strategy for His rescue mission. In Ex. 3: 7 God says to Moses “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians …” Notice, God says “ I have seen…I have heard…I am concerned…So I have come down…” The work of liberation was God’s work and not Moses’. Moses was an instrument in God’s Hand, but God alone was the redeemer. The task at hand can be accomplished only because God is at work. In promising to be with Moses God was assuring him that he would not lack anything. God would sustain him all through the way. God’s sustaining power can be clearly seen in the way He cared for them as they wandered in the desert for forty years. Years later as Nehemiah, praised God for His sustaining power he said this, “For forty years you sustained them in the desert; they lacked nothing…” (Nehemiah 9:21)

When God calls us for a task we can be sure that God will sustain us. Hudson Taylor, the great pioneer missionary to China, once commented that God's work done, in God's way will never lack God's provision. This does not mean that there will never be problems or that we won’t have to face any difficulties, but what it does mean is that God will never leave us nor forsake us. Moses had to face a lot of difficulties as he confronted Pharaoh and later on as he led the people of Israel out of Egypt, but through it all he always found God next to him.
The well known poem entitled ‘Footprints in the sand’ beautifully captures this truth. It describes a dream where a person sees, two sets of footprints, one that belongs to him and the other to the Lord. And as he looks at his life he sees that in the most difficult times there was only one set of footprints. So he turns to God and asks Him “Why is it that during the most difficult and trying times, I can see only one set of footprints, why did you leave me when I needed you the most?” God answers “My precious child. I love you and I would never leave you. During your times of trial and suffering when you saw only one set of footprints... That was when I carried you." If we were to look at our own lives we would recognize, how often God has carried us through the difficult times. Moses testified to this, years later in Deut. 1:31, as the Israelites were about to enter the promised land, where he says “…the Lord your God carried you, as a father carries his son, all the way you went until you reached this place.”
If God is asking you to step out in faith, remember He will be with you every step of the way. Through the good times and bad times His faithfulness remains unchanged. As He promised through the prophet Isaiah, “When you walk through the waters I will be with you…” So step out, with the assurance that where God sends you, He will sustain you.

When God enlist — He empowers.
Though God promised to be with him, Moses was still not sure if he could do what God was asking him to do. He came up with another excuse. In Ex. 4:10 he says “O 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” Now this was not entirely true. Acts 7:22 says that earlier in his life, during his days as a Prince of Egypt, he was "...educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in speech and action." But that was half a life-time ago – according to Moses the "golden years" of his life. Now he saw himself just an old shepherd. His current skills in public speaking were limited to the words and sounds that were used to motivate sheep-not people-not a nation-not a pharaoh! God’s answer to this was a strong rebuttal. In verse 11 God says to Moses “Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, the LORD? What God was really saying to Moses, was “Moses don’t tell me what you can do and what you can’t do, I know you better that you know yourself. So trust me”

Forty years ago, Moses had tried to liberate the people of Israel trusting in his own strength. Now God was telling him, “This time, trust me. You tried it your way, now do it my way, in my strength.” Now, how did God empower Moses? He asked him what was in his hand (Ex 4:1) and Moses replied a staff. Little did Moses know about the power his simple staff would yield when it became the rod of God? The staff was a symbol of God’s power to both the Israelites and the Egyptians. When Pharaoh refused to let the people go, God sent Moses to him with these words “By this you will know that I am the LORD: With the staff that is in my hand I will strike the water of the Nile, and it will be changed into blood.” (Ex 7:17) When the Israelites stood before the Red sea with the Egyptian army in their pursuit, God told Moses “…lift up your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it…” (Ex. 14:15) When God enlisted Moses for His mission, He also made sure that He empowered him to fulfil that mission.

God will not call us to do something for which, His power is not sufficient. There is story of Billy Graham, who was holding some of his early crusades in England. As the altar call was given after Billy Graham had preached, the choir would sing "Just As I Am," and the people would walk down the bleachers to make their commitment. The next day the press said, “Billy Graham had used music to manipulate the masses." The following night Billy Graham decided not to use music. At the alter call He simply said, "You just come forward without music." All you could hear were the bleachers creaking as the people went forward. This went on for days. There was no music, yet people in hundreds and thousands would come forward to commit their life to God. After some days the same reporter who had written, that music was being used to emotionally manipulate the crowd, wrote in his article “Please give us the music, the silence is deafening”. You see the crowds did not respond because they were being emotionally manipulated, but because God’s power was at work. God has promised in His word saying “ Its not by might, not by power but by my spirit …” (Zec.4:6) When we do what God asks us to do, we can be rest assured that the task ahead of us is not greater than the power that is behind us. We can do all things through Him who strengths us. Even leave our comfort zone and move into uncharted waters.

When God assigns – He amazes.
An anonymous writer once wrote these words:
I am not sent a pilgrim here, my heart with earth to fill;
But I am here God's grace to learn, and serve God's sovereign will.
He leads me on through smiles and tears, grief follows gladness still;
But let me welcome both alike, since both work out His will.
No service in itself is small, none great, though earth it fill;
But that is small that seeks its own, and great that seeks God's will.
Then hold my hand, most gracious Lord, guide all my doings still;
And let this be my life’s one aim, to do, or bear thy will.

There are times when God calls us to do His will and then there are times when we have to bear His will” In either case, when His will is done it will amaze us, how God can transform our trials into triumphs. In Gen. 50:20 Joseph says to his brother who had sold him into slavery “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.” The Bible teaches us that our limitations do not handicap God’s plan and purpose. On the contrary often it is our limitations that enable God to work His glory in and through us.
One of the books that I read which has had a very deep impact on my life is the true story of a girl named Joni Eareckson Tada. Joni was left quadriplegic after a diving accident in 1967 when she was just 17 years old. Initially she believed that God would heal her, but as days went by and this did not happen, her belief turned into despair and she began to contemplate committing suicide. Being a quadriplegic she could not even take her own life. One night having reached the end of the rope she cried out to God and said “God, if I can't die, then please show me how to live.” Her prayer changed things dramatically in the long run. God did not heal her, but gave her a purpose to live. Today Joni is the founder of a ministry called ‘Joni and friends’ that ministers to people with physical disabilities. She has authored 30 books, is a world renowned speaker, and has learnt to paint by holding the brush in her mouth. In an interview on the BBC she once said “I would rather be in this wheelchair knowing Him the way I do than be on my feet without Him”

At the age of 17 God pushed Joni out of her comfort zone, and amazed not just her but the whole world to see what God can accomplish through a life that is surrendered to His purposes. At the beginning of Ex. 3 we meet Moses as a whiner, complaining about his own inadequacy, but at the end of his life the scriptures testify to his life with these words. “Never since has there arisen a prophet in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face. He was unequalled for all the signs and wonders that the Lord sent him to perform in the land of Egypt…” (Deut. 34: 10-11). What a testimony! Moses would have missed the greatest adventure of his life, had he refused to obey God. When we fulfil what God has assigns us to do, it will amaze us what God can accomplish through us.

Adventure with God
John Wesley once said, “Man’s greatest discovery is to know God’s will, and his greatest adventure is to do God’s will”. Embarking on an adventure means taking risks, going in the unknown way. One cannot be in his/her own comfort zone and experience the thrill of an adventure.
What comfort zone is God asking you to move out of? It may be in the area of finance, where God is asking you to trust in His provision, or may be in the area of relationships where God is asking you to let go. No matter what God is asking you to do, remember when He commands, He also sustains, empowers and amazes you for His glory. So that at the end of the day, we too, like Paul can boldly affirm, “Not that we are competent of our selves to claim anything as coming from us; our competence is from God” (2 Cor.2: 5-6)

-Rev. Paras Tayade.