I have learned when I wake up everyday to look for God …I find myself not only desiring to feel His presence, but I want to see Him in action and His will played out. Several years ago I was encouraged to “drop my hands” in my own life’s circumstances. Yes, “control” was a thing for me. As I reflect back…the control…I had the right motives (I did not have malicious intent) but it was all wrong….I was really trying to play God in other people’s lives.
I had to come to the realization that God wanted to fix and help me…that was what I needed to focus on. Many times we need to take a step back and even though we see what needs to be fixed and worked on in someone else…. that should not be our focus, nor our responsibility…maybe we should pray for that person…but many times we need to turn inward and allow God to change us, leaving the “fixing” of others up to Him.
Many times God is not ready to “fix” the other person or the person is not aware that things are broken. I reached a point where it was necessary to adopt the scripture…..Philippians 2:13, “For it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.”….and Isaiah 64:4, “God works for those who wait for him.”
I often think of Moses….born a Hebrew but raised as an Egyptian with all the privileges and perks of being royalty….plush environment with great food, comfortable shelter, status and the best education money could buy….but as he grew…he knew he was a Hebrew and thought he was doing the right thing when he saw a Hebrew slave being mistreated by an Egyptian. Moses related to “his people” and wanted to defend them.
He didn’t think…he reacted…and took CONTROL. Exodus 2:11-12, “One day after Moses had grown up, he went out to where his own people were and watched them at their hard labor. Here was an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people. Glancing this way and that and seeing no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.” Later, Moses returned to find two Hebrews fighting… and when he confronted them….instead of looking to Moses as one of them who was offering help….they retorted…” Are you going to kill us as you did the Egyptian?”
Moses had gained NO GROUND in taking control or in winning favor with his people like he thought he might…….Why? Moses did it his way, in his time. The one thing we can all learn from Moses is this……..When it comes to God, timing is everything….You might want to do something real bad, and it may be something you know God wants you to do real bad, but….is it His time????
Giving up control…is really gaining control of your life. When you surrender your will, your time, and your desires to a Holy God….and you place your life in His Control….amazing things happen.
Moses fled to the desert for many years and it was there that he was humbled and learned a lot about who he was and who he was not apart from God…so much so….that when he went to investigate the “burning bush” in the desert and God spoke to him and even told him to take off his sandals for he was standing on Holy ground….Moses was not the same man…If you read the account in Exodus…you see that it was God’s time, God’s way and in God’s power, not Moses, that the Hebrew people would be set free.
I look at a time in my life when I was much like Moses. In the desert..…. for so long, trying to do it my way, in my time and do what I thought was best…….when I experienced the “burning bush”…..I was told to “drop my hands”….Yep, to let go…..to “look in the mirror,” to examine my heart and guard it. As I looked in the mirror I realized I had neglected to guard my heart…there were people, things, and agendas in front of my relationship with God…thus, there were “idols”….that took my attention from God’s voice and power in my life.
As I slowly, carefully and DILIGENTLY let go and put my WHOLE FOCUS on God…one day at a time….taking long periods of time…to drink from His Word and listen to HIS voice….I had to sit quietly and listen carefully because my own voice, and the voice of others (people pleasing), had been the dominate voice…..as God’s voice became the dominate force and I experienced the supernatural power of the flow of HIS WILL, HIS TIME and HIS GRACE…..AMAZING THINGS started to happen in my life.
I felt very much like Moses…..in the desert. Exodus 3:11, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”….unsure….but willing to take the steps He was telling me to take. If you look at Moses…he went from being an arrogant and self-confident man who killed an Egyptian and buried him in the sand, to a man who lived in the desert for many years and was unsure of himself.
So….don’t feel alone…If you are unsure of God ‘s voice, or if you have taken matters into your own hands, running in front of God or totally ignoring Him, either on purpose or unintentionally, or like me, you have allowed others voices to be louder in your life than God’s voice….then take heart….there is hope. Let this post serve as “YOUR BURNING BUSH”……surrender your will, your desires and your time to God…take off your “Nike airs” or your “wedges” and get alone with God. Repent of the sin of playing God in your own life and allow Him to direct you in His way.
Job 12:13, “With God are wisdom and might; he has counsel and understanding.”
Read on in Exodus chapter 4 of the miraculous signs that God performed for Moses which demonstrated God’s HOLY power. God said to Moses….”I am who I AM!” I have realized that God wants to do several things with me/you/us:
1. He wants us to have a God-confidence. Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through him who strengthens me.”
2. God uses even the bad experiences to prepare us for future service.
3. God wants to do something with what you already have before He gives you something new.
4. Obeying God leads to a new self-image. 2 Corinthians 3:4-5, “Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God,”
Reading further in Exodus, we find that after much obeying and following God’s plan in God’s way and in God’s time, we see and hear a different Moses talking to the Israelites…with a Godly confidence….”Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again.” Exodus 14:13
I don’t know about you…But I can unapologetically say…..I have loved dropping my hands and gaining Godly Confidence.
Proverbs 16:1-3, “The plans of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord. All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the spirit. Commit your work to the Lord, and your plans will be established.”