Here's my hunch about you: there's something God has already put on your heart. A conversation you know you're supposed to have. A step you're supposed to take. A calling you can't quite shake. And my other hunch is that you've already got a reason why you can't do it, shouldn't do it or will do it later.
I do it too. And our reasons always sound good. "I'm just being realistic about my limitations." But underneath the reason is usually fear. We dress up our fear in Sunday clothes and call it wisdom.
Moses did the same thing. He was 80 years old, tending someone else's sheep in the middle of nowhere, when God spoke to him from a burning bush (Exodus 3). Here's what his story teaches about calling:
1. Faithfulness now leads to opportunity later
Moses wasn't on a spiritual retreat. He was at work. God usually calls people who are already being faithful in ordinary things.
2. God starts it, but you have to respond
God got his attention with the bush, but Moses had to say, "I will turn aside to see" (Exodus 3:3 ESV). Then he had to take off his sandals. He had to lay down his own way.
3. Your excuses don't scare God
Moses had four, and you probably have the same ones. As my old football coach used to say, "Excuses are like behinds. Everyone has them, and they all stink." (He didn't say "behinds," but we're in church.)
"I'm not able." "Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh?" God never answers the question about Moses. He just says, "But I will be with you" (Exodus 3:11–12 ESV).
"I don't know God well enough." God gives him His name: "I AM WHO I AM" (Exodus 3:14 ESV). I AM is all you need.
"Nobody will support me." God asks, "What is that in your hand?" (Exodus 4:2 ESV). Just a shepherd's staff. But surrendered to God, it became "the staff of God" (Exodus 4:20 ESV).
"I have too many weaknesses." "I am slow of speech." God says, "Who has made man's mouth?… I will be with your mouth" (Exodus 4:10–12 ESV).
4. If God has called you to it, He'll equip you for it
He redeems your past. Moses' 40 years in Pharaoh's palace taught him leadership, and his 40 years as a shepherd trained him to lead stubborn sheep through that exact wilderness. God gives you gifts. And He surrounds you with people, like He gave Moses his brother Aaron. God doesn't call the equipped. He equips the called.
5. You'll probably obey while you're still afraid
"So Moses took his wife and his sons… and went back to the land of Egypt" (Exodus 4:20 ESV). There's no verse that says his fear disappeared. Courage isn't the absence of fear. It's obedience in the presence of it.
And remember, your calling is mostly about people. If you're in Christ, you've been set free by a greater Deliverer than Moses, so you can go help set someone else free. The details are personal, but the call is the same for all of us.
The question God asked Moses was never "Are you unafraid?" It was "Will you go?"
Scripture: Exodus 3:1–14; Exodus 4:1–20; 1 Corinthians 1:26–29; Acts 7:22; Matthew 28:20