July 28: Learning to be a Nobody

But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?” (Exodus 3:11 NKJV)

Who am I? This was not the question of someone who had that much confidence in himself. It was that of someone who had been drained of his pride. 40 years earlier Moses would have been  the first one to beat his chest in confidence and sign up for the latest assignment. After all, he was the adopted son of pharaoh's daughter, probably educated in the Egyptian Ivy League institutions, a royal prince of Egypt, heir to some high official position, enjoying all the privileges. He was cocky, impulsive and full of himself.  He displayed this when he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. He was the self-appointed deliverer whose job was to tell everyone what to do.

However, the Moses we see in our text today is a different one. It was a subdued Moses, one who had been emptied of his pride. The bible would later call him the meekest man on the earth. Something had happened to Moses that changed his view of himself.  Here it is: Moses spent the first 40 years of his life thinking he was somebody, then after he became a fugitive, he spent the next 40 years learning he was a nobody. The encounter in our text today is the beginning of how he learned during the last 40 years of his life what God could do with a nobody.

40 years ago, he thought God needed somebodies. Here he would learn that God wants nobodies that he could make somebodies out of. God wants people who have enough space within themselves that he could pour Himself into because they had been emptied of self. He wants people with weaknesses  enough to depend on His strength and inadequacies enough to cling to His sufficiency. 

Your call in God can only be accomplished through dependence on Him. You can only bear fruits when you abide and stay hooked to the vine. Every effort in self-sufficiency even with the loftiest of aims results in a curse because woe it is to the man who trusts in man and makes the arms of flesh his trust. This is the reason why God's use for those who seek independence is limited. God is looking for those who have come to the end of themselves; those who are at the point where their identities are no where else but in Him. Those who ask Him, " Who am I" like Moses did. It is those humble souls who have come to terms with their "nobodyness" who He takes on the journey of being somebody. 


Decision of the Day

I understand that independence and pride will hinder me from being used of God, but a recognition of my  helplessness and inadequacies in my self leading me to dependence on Him is the path to my destiny. I decide today to pursue that path of dependence