The Lord wants to use you, no
matter where you are or what you are doing! I am not insinuating
that all of us go into ministry and work full time for the Lord.
But there where you are at the moment, listen to His Voice and
listen carefully to what He wants to tell you where you are. If He
tells you to move, move, and if He tells you to change, change and
if He tells you to stay and make a difference in people's lives
there, do it. Whatever the case may be, listen and obey. There is a
great treasure awaiting you.
Another important point that I want
to make before going further, is: do not ever look at yourself with
your fleshly eyes. That is what I did before starting with this
website and writing my books, and the Lord sternly reprimanded me.
The Lord sees the potential in you, don't ever degrade yourself.
All He is looking for is obedience, nothing more. As the saying
goes, 'Do your best and God will do the rest'. Now let's have a
look at a few biblical characters and how their lives turned out
after the Lord called them. Let's start with Moses.
You all probably know how the story
of Moses started. The Pharaoh of Egypt became alarmed at the rate
that the Israelites (their slaves) were multiplying. He was scared
that they could start a revolt against them in the near future. So
he ordered that all the newborn boys should be killed directly
after birth. Now it was in an atmosphere such as this that Moses
was born. He was a beautiful boy and his parents tried to hide him
from the evil Egyptians. They could only do it successfully until
he was three months old. His cries could probably have been heard
and therefore they couldn't hide him any longer. His mother decided
to place him in a little basket and put him along the edge of the
Nile river (imagine the heart ache of his mother!!). But as
the Lord would have it, one of Pharaoh's daughters came to the side
of the river to bathe and heard poor Moses' helpless cries.
It broke her heart and she adopted him as her son.
Now let's halt the story there for
a while. Moses was adopted by a princess of Egypt and therefore
received the honor of being a prince. He must have had a royal
life. He was raised to believe that he was part of a superior race
and that they were much better than the Israelites. He was famous,
rich beyond believe and never had to lift a finger to do anything
for himself. An absolute dream life according to worldly
standards. He could have minded his own business and stayed
there forever, enjoying the riches off the land, while his blood
family was suffering. Most people would have stayed in their
comfort zone, but Moses had more in him. He wanted to help.
Now his way of helping brought him
into deep trouble. He saw how the Egyptian soldiers
mistreated the Israelites and forced them to work very hard. Now as
a prince he would most probably have been trained by the Egyptian
military, which was the most sophisticated army in the world at
that stage. He seemed to be a good fighter, because without any
trouble (it seems) he killed and buried an Egyptian mistreating an
Israelite. Pharaoh quickly heard what happened and must have
known where Moses' real sympathy lies and he plotted to kill him
immediately. Moses heard what happened and fled into the wilderness
of Midian. Once there, he rescued some girls from shepherds
harassing them at a water hole for their flocks (again he must have
been a good fighter as he rescued them on his own). The girls were
so grateful and invited him to their home. There Moses stayed and
became a shepherd like they were. He married one of the girls,
Zipporah and had children with her.
So let's recap. Moses was an
Egyptian prince who had a royal life, who fled because he murdered
someone and now he was a shepherd in the wilderness who had to do
everything for himself. A shepherd, I might add, that he was raised
to despise because they were lower class people. Moses must have
been depressed. I mean think about it, you had everything your
heart desired and now you had nothing. And to top it off you were
now doing a job you hated and despised. Plus he must have had
nightmares for murdering the Egyptian. No matter what the cause, I
think it still tugs at your heart if you murdered someone. It is
against God's moral law (even though the ten commandments were not
given yet, each person knows in their being that killing is
wrong).
Moses must have thought his life
was over. I am almost certain he never expected anything big to
come from his life. He must have thought that he will simply carry
on like this till the day he died. He spent 40 years in Midian
tending the sheep of his father-in-law (not his own sheep I might
add, he had nothing). Now Moses died at the age of 120, so 40 years
were a third of his life! It is a long time for anyone.
I will go on with the story next
time, but for now I want to ask you something. Have you ever felt
like Moses? For example:
My life is going nowhere.
There is no big future for me. I have lost everything, I cannot
cope. I wish I could turn back the clock to go back to my
comfortable living. I have done something terrible and would never
be able to mean something to the world because of what I have done.
I have worked my whole life to make someone else rich. I have a
meaningless job. I hate my work. I have no family, parents,
brothers or sisters, I am all alone. The best part of my life is
over, I would never be able to start over now. I have no
reason to continue living. I am a nobody. The Lord doesn't care
about me.
Have any of these questions ever
entered your mind? I am sure at some stage in everyone's life a
person might feel like this, but I want to encourage you. This is
not the end. The Lord has a plan. He had a big plan for Moses and
He could have one for you too.
Lord, please give us the courage to
press on and to wait on Your perfect timing and Your perfect plan.
We have gone astray, but we will faithfully wait on You, to make
something of our lives. We love you. Amen