LIVING WORD DEVOTIONAL
By Pastor Mensa Otabil
Monday 5th May 2025
WHO WILL BELIEVE?
Scripture Reading: Exodus 4
Then Moses answered and said, “But suppose they will not believe me or listen to my voice; suppose they say, ‘The Lord has not appeared to you.’ ” Exodus 4:1
Moses had an extraordinary encounter with the Lord, yet he had doubts about his mission. He saw a miraculous sight of the fire in a bush without the leaves burning. When Moses drew near to see what was happening, he heard a voice speaking to him. In time, he got to know that the voice talking to him was the voice of God.
The Lord set up that experience at Mount Horeb to assure Moses about His mission for him. After seeing the Lord’s presence and hearing His voice, Moses still doubted that he would be well received in Egypt. In this conversation between God and Moses, we see the first of several protests by Moses against his calling.
Moses wanted to know if the Lord had any backup plan for him if the children of Israel rejected him for the second time as their leader.
Anytime God calls us to do something or impress on our hearts to undertake a mission, our past failures can make us feel inadequate. Moses had failed when he attempted to liberate Israel forty years earlier. His failure compelled him to run from his mission.
Moses ran to the land of Midian, married and settled into a new life. By running to seek refuge in Midian, Moses also ran from the mission that God had stirred in his heart. After forty years of living an assumed life, he had purged himself of every desire to be a liberator. Failing to accomplish a mission can profoundly undermine our self-confidence.
Moses was worried about the people of Israel challenging him when he told them God’s mandate to him. His concern for how he would be received clouded the image of the burning bush he had just seen. The sounds of rejection he heard forty years earlier drowned the voice of the Lord that he had just heard.
Have you ever found yourself in a situation like that? Is there a mission that you’re running from? Perhaps you also failed at something in your past – an examination, a job, a marriage or a ministry.
Throughout the scriptures, we learn that while we may have doubts about ourselves, God does not have such thoughts about us. He knows our past and all of its failures. In addition to that, the Lord knows about our future and how different it can be from our past. We judge ourselves with our past, but the Lord sees the potential of our future. When we think it is all over, God sees a new beginning.
Prayer:
Heavenly Father, your word is my sure foundation. Help me to trust you even when I don’t trust myself. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
