10 Now go, I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.” 11 But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” 12 He said, “I will be with you…”
Reflection
Moses had every reason to feel small. Once a prince of Egypt, he is now a shepherd in the wilderness – and he is standing before a burning bush that blazes with incomprehensible holy fire and receives a call that feels far too big for him to manage.
Lead Israel out of slavery?!
Moses’ first instinct wasn’t courage—it was doubt. “Who am I?” he asked. It was as though he meant: Nothing I have to offer could possibly be enough.
That question still echoes in the hearts of those God calls. We, too, often look at our lives and see only what we lack: not enough time, not enough skill, not enough courage. We focus on what we aren’t. We also look around at the world and our neighbors in it and do the same. We focus on everything they aren’t, everything that’s wrong, all the conditions we wish were different. In all of this focusing on what isn’t – I fear that sometimes we forget who God is.
God’s answer to Moses wasn’t a pep talk. It wasn’t about boosting Moses’ self-esteem. It was a simple, steady promise: “I will be with you.”
God didn’t need Moses to be impressive. God didn’t need Moses to be everything.
God only needed Moses to trust that God’s power would be enough.
The power, the plan, the outcome—none of that rested on Moses. It rested on the One whose voice spoke out to him from the flames.
When we offer our small gifts—our words, our presence, our hands, our prayers—God does what only God can do. The ordinary becomes holy. The insufficient becomes enough. What feels like a desert becomes a place of calling.
Think of what came next in this story: A shepherd’s staff became a symbol of deliverance. The hesitant words of a man with a stutter became the rallying cry of a nation. His fear became boldness as he began to see what God could do once he said “YES.”
God took what little Moses had and turned it into more than Moses could ever imagine. So what small gift do you have that you might be willing to let God use? Where do you need to say “YES” today? What thing is God asking you to entrust into the power of God’s hands?
by Kate Monahan
For Pondering and Prayer
What might God be inviting you to do—even with your smallness, your limitations, your doubts?
Remember: God never calls the equipped. God equips the called. The question is never “Am I enough?” but “Will I trust the One who is?”
Prayer:
God of burning bushes and trembling hearts,
You see the little we have and still call us to great things.
Remind us that your presence is our strength,
Your power is our sufficiency,
And your grace can do immeasurably more than we can ask or imagine.
Use us, Lord—just as we are, and far beyond what we think we can be.
Amen.
