5 Stars Out Of 5
Four Faith-Forward Lessons from the Life of Moses
May 19, 2016
Michele Morin
Warren, Maine
Age: 45-54
Gender: female
Quality:
5
Value:
5
Meets Expectations:
5
In a couple of months, Ill be celebrating two years of blogging. When my pastor first invited me to be a guest writer for the churchs blog, I could barely breathe whenever I clicked on that publish button and that really hasnt changed too much. What has changed, however, is my understanding of bold believing, my willingness to trust God with the risk of putting my words out there to invisible readers. Im finding that God is not looking for a different Michele to carry His Truth.
Fortunately, Im not the first follower to need this bit of encouragement, and Sharon Jaynes unpacks the Let Go, Move Forward, Live Bold lesson that God revealed to Moses. Take Hold of the Faith You Long For addresses my objections to a bold following, my amnesia about the nature of the God who calls, and my desire to cling to the timid reluctance that characterizes the lives of most believers.
Sharon speaks from experience. Feeling stuck between the Red Sea and the Promised Land, Sharon longed to move from knowing the promise to believing the promise in her life of faith. She has discovered in the story of Moses and the burning bush a rescue mission in which God lifted Moses out of his insecurity and into his true identity through a revelation of Gods own power and presence. The result of her study is a pondering of Moses four questions that were forever settled for him there on the holy ground that surrounded the burning bush:
1. Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?
It turns out that Moses was asking the wrong question, for it was not who Moses was, but, rather, who God is that made all the difference, for He is the God who chooses, who loves, who enables, and who accepts His children with grace and patience. Gods presence and His abundant promises made all the difference for Moses as he moved into his new leadership role.
2. If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, The God of your fathers has sent me to you, and they ask me, What is his name? what shall I say to them?
With this objection, Moses learned the glorious truth that the Great I AM would fill in all his perceived gaps, giving him words to say and showing him what to do. God is not looking for perfection in our era either. With all our inferiority and insecurity, the underlying statement is a sense of inadequacy:
Im not smart enough.
Im not experienced enough.
Im not talented enough. Fill in the blank with your own . . .
Im not _____________ enough.
In every case, the answer is the same: God replies, I AM, just as He did with Moses.
3. But behold, they will not believe me or listen to my voice, for they will say, The Lord did not appear to you.
Maybe you have been belittled in the past. Perhaps you are carrying an identity that is freighted with failure. At the burning bush, Moses was confronted with the shame of his past and encouraged to move forward with a new God-given identity. He could choose to forgive himself and others and move on, or he could have elected to stay in bondage to the past. Forgiveness does not absolve the offender, deny the wrong, or lessen the evil of whatever has been committed. The Greek word for forgiveness carries overtones of freedom and release, and this applies to both the offender and to the individual who was wronged.
Sharon also challenges her readers to let go of the what ifs and to move into sure-footed confidence in Gods messages of hope.
4. Oh, my Lord, I am not eloquent, either in the past or since you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and of tongue.
With one of many relevant and heart-warming stories from her own life, Sharon reveals a first-grade memory from her own days of being slow-of-reading. Today God is up-ending her insecurity around words in her career as a writer. She has written twenty books, and Im smiling as I read a New Testament testimonial to the life and ministry of Moses:
And Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and he was mighty in his words and deeds. Acts 7:22
Mighty in words and deeds.
God washed away the stain of the REJECT stamp from Moses life, and Paul invites us to learn from this stunning example:
For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. Romans 15:4
Let Moses fireside conversation with God answer your objections to a bold faith and then move forward into the faith you long for.
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This book was provided by BakerBooks, a division of Baker Publishing Group, in exchange for my review. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commissions 16 CFR, Part 255 : Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.