Ministers Blogs
“God’s Power Prevails”
Categories: Christian PrinciplesDoug's Discussion
After being plucked out of the water by Pharaoh’s daughter Moses grew up among the Egyptians. However, something clued him in to the fact that he wasn’t Egyptian by birth. In fact, he even knew about the one true God. I’m guessing his mother or one of his siblings had something to do with that somehow. However he found out, Moses began to identify less with the Egyptians and more with his own people. (And think how remarkable that is! The Egyptians were rich and his own people were slaves.) “He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time” (Hebrews 11:25). When Moses sees an Egyptian and an Israelite fighting he comes to the side of the Israelite, killing the Egyptian and hiding him in the sand.
Those who know this story know that this effort was less appreciated than expected. Stephen shares, “Moses thought that his own people would realize that God was using him to rescue them, but they did not” (Acts 7:25). So Moses knows of God, and He knows God would want His people to be rescued from slavery. Moses’ plan is, apparently, to take the abusive Egyptians out one at a time. There IS a lot of sand in Egypt to hide bodies . . . but this was never going to work. Moses was trying to accomplish God’s purposes without God’s power. This leads to Moses getting banished to tend sheep in the desert, until he is “a very humble man, more humble than anyone else on the face of the earth” (Numbers 12:3). NOW God can use Moses to rescue the people. Now Moses knows he can do nothing without God.
Hopefully this is a lesson we can learn without forty years in a desert. We also are a people who know of God, and we have some idea of the work that God wants to accomplish. The zealous among us dive in and strive to accomplish great victories for the kingdom. But may I suggest a very wise thing to do first? We should humble ourselves and pray. We should pray for the strength of God in whatever we are trying to do. God is able to accomplish in moments what would take us more than a lifetime to achieve on our own. Are you about to begin some ministry? Fantastic! But if you want to avoid going about God’s work in all the wrong ways I suggest starting with a season of prayer.
