Why me?
“Then Moses returned to the Lord and said, ‘O Lord, why hast Thou brought harm to this people? Why didst Thou ever send me?’”-Exodus 5:22
Moses met with God; he had seen the bush that was burned but was not consumed. The Lord had spoken to him, and he knew that his mission was to deliver the Israelites. However, when he went before Pharaoh instead of releasing the Israelites Pharaoh doubled their workload, so in the face of this Moses began to question God. He knew what his mission was, and he knew that God had called him; but in the face of increasing external forces Moses began to question whether or not he was the right man for the job.
At times we all feel like God made a mistake. If I were a betting man I’d say that all preachers have felt like that at least once in their ministry. King David is called a man after God’s own heart. He was hand- picked by God to be the king of Israel. David had a close, intimate relationship with God. The Lord had been with him when he slew the Philistine warrior, Goliath. (I Samuel 17:45) He had been with David while he was fleeing Saul, and had allowed him to take charge in Israel after Saul. (II Samuel 12:8)
However, we read in II Samuel 15 that Absalom, David’s son, conspired to take the throne from David, and although David was certain of his mission and his calling by the Lord he became uncertain of himself in the midst of external pressures.
The occasional doubt of our calling, or even if we are tempted by Satan to abandon our calling is not in itself a sin. Jesus Himself was also tempted by God. We see in Matthew 4 that after He was baptized was led into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan; verse 1 tells us that He was led or taken into the wilderness by the Spirit. We see here that when we are tested it is not necessarily a demonic force, but occasionally, as in the case of Job from the OT, God will himself allow us to be tested to remove the doubts that we may have in our mind. Therefore, if we are tested we should praise God that we were found worthy because we know His word tells us that no man will be tested beyond His means. All pure gold is put through the refiner’s fire before it can be used to bring honor to its owner. Therefore, when we are tested through fire it only draws is closer to the perfect image of Jesus Christ.
Father, I thank You for allowing me to be tested, and I ask that You would help me to not only endure the testing; but to draw closer to You through the testing. That I might bring honor to You. In Jesus’ name, Amen
This Sunday I will be leaving to work at a camp for developmentally disabled children, Camp Hawkins. (There are some pictures of last year’s camp in my PICS section.) I will be there for 5 weeks, and during that time I will not have daily internet access. I will try and post reports on here about the camp on a weekly basis. I covet your prayers for myself and the other staff members as we help with the children.
The image above can be found at:
Yes, You Can Ministry 