by Joe Smith
When you watch highlights from great hockey players you will notice something: Many of their goals aren’t served up to them on a tee. Now, sometimes you are just in the right place at the right time, but how many times do you get a tap in goal? The great players take advantage of opportunities when they present themselves. Great players see those chances where other do not. What looks like a dead end play to the average player, is a golden opportunity for a great players.
Moses, however, was like an average player. He was presented with one of “those opportunities”, but in his mind (and probably everyone who would have been in that situation) it was impossible. Moses was an Israelite and his people were slaves under Pharaoh and the Egyptians. Life had gone from bad to worse to horrendous for the Israelites. They were a captive people laboring in a foreign land. The time had come for God to send a hero to save them. God chose Moses to be this man, but Moses did not see this as an amazing opportunity. He saw this as a hurdle he could never clear. How could one man bring a whole nation out of slavery? God presented His plan and told Moses that he would be the man to execute it, but Moses had no confidence. He didn’t think he was the right man to lead this rebellion (Exodus 3:11). He didn’t think his own people would believe that God appeared to him (4:1). He didn’t think he would be a very good speaker (4:10). Finally Moses just asked God to send someone else (4:13).
Now, here’s the cool part: Moses was absolutely right. He couldn’t go head to head with Pharaoh. He couldn’t convince his own people that God was in this. He couldn’t do anything, but God was behind this and by working through Moses he could and DID accomplish all of these things! For every concern that Moses presented God basically gave the same answer; I will help you.
In our lives we can get too hung up on our own inadequacies when it comes to seizing an opportunity. God will frequently give us opportunities that aren’t based on how easy we think they should be or how we think we can handle them. God picked Moses BECAUSE he was so inadequate. God was the one responsible for it all. He just used Moses as His vehicle to accomplish the plan. “But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong” (1 Corinthians 1:27). Moses and Israel could give God all of the credit because what happened could only be explained as the power of God.
We don’t need to live a life of fear and doubt. What looks like an impossibility can really be an opportunity because it is God who will see us through. He is working in you. When you yield to the Holy Spirit there is no limit to what you can accomplish for God’s glory. “[F]or it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose” (Philippians 2:13). God’s purpose is accomplished in our weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9)…..No matter how impossible we think the future seems to be!
