Moses was not just an old guy

For a long time in my Christian faith, the Old Testament was a mystery to me. Moses just seemed like some old guy that was really irrelevant to my life. But then about 3 years ago I began to sense a calling on my life, a calling about writing and speaking for God. I was afraid, very afraid. Really afraid of failure.

I read a book called Shadow Women by Angela Hunt (I like most of her books, by the way!) This was a very different type of book for me to read. It's the historical fiction version of Moses told from the viewpoint of three women in his life - his Egyptian mother, his wife, and his sister. This book was so timely and just made me looove Moses.

I could so relate to him. He was so afraid, too. When Moses realized God was calling him, he tried really hard to talk God out of his plan.(exodus 3 & 4) Oh, how I can relate to that!

I've been thinking lately about Moses seeing that burning bush, the one that was on fire but not being consumed, the one God used to get Moses' attention. What would have happened if Moses hadn't stopped? What if Moses had just ignored that bush?

Well, Moses would have missed out. God would have chosen someone else to lead the people out of slavery in Egypt to the Promised Land. God's will would have still been accomplished, just not with Moses.

I don't want to miss out on being used by God to accomplish His plan. I want to have eyes that see God working and I want to join God in His plan.

This morning I watched Joyce Meyer, as I do many mornings. Now I know some people are not crazy about her, but I love the way she speaks honestly about God's truth.
A woman, I think called Penny, was talking about how she'd had back pain for 20 something years. She was about my age, and she grabbed my attention because of the darn foot pain I deal with.

She said that she was praying one day and had the thought that she needed "to run for a miracle." She knew that thought was from God. So she did something radical. She began to train for a marathon. Now this was a woman who had sever pain, took lots of pain meds, and had never run. She cold have easily ignored this thought, but she would have missed out on what God had in store for her, a huge blessing!

So she trained, and on the morning of the race she had such severe knee pain she could hardly move. But she was determined, she showed up at the starting line and about one mile into the race she realized her back pain was gone! She finished the race. Her back pain has never returned.

This story made me cry! The thing that stayed with me was how she had a miracle in her life, but how she had to be a part of making the miracle happen. She had to be obedient in what God called her to do. Then she waited with faith for God to do His part.

Sometimes it's easy to think of God as a magic fairy who will wave His wand to accomplish the miracle we want. I'm sure that happens sometimes, but this story, and the story of Moses make me think about how God wants us to respond to Him in obedience first. I think I'll go think about that...