Life is Hard; Remember Moses

A Blog About Obedience by Julia Sifers

Part of having a relationship with God is communicating with him. We can do this through prayers, but we can also learn and hear from him in the Bible. These are very basic pillars to the Christian faith, but I know I’m not the only one who struggles with consistency in these elementary levels of connecting with God.

A good friend of mine was encouraging me to read the whole Bible, and shared a new way to read it. Instead of the sometimes overwhelming approach of reading it cover to cover, she suggested I print off a check list of each book of the Bible and treat them as individual books. I wasn’t sure when I began, but I am loving this softer, less daunting approach to reading the WHOLE Bible!

So fast forward a few months, and I found myself in Exodus. I have read this book many times in my failed attempts to read the Bible start to finish. But this time, I was reading it fresh, on it’s own, just Exodus. And as I was reading in Chapter 4, about Moses discovering the burning bush, and the Lord walking him through Moses’ assignment to chat with Pharaoh, I didn’t quickly skim through, but read the words and let them soak in.

Moses was nervous. He fully believed but he also had doubts. And it hit me: You can still obey when you don’t understand and have doubts.

There are times in our lives when we’re very aware of how to obey God, in circumstances or relationships or life choices, but we are nervous. We aren’t sure on “the how” or if we’ll land on our feet. But those insecurities can stand on the sidelines, as long as we still obey. God supplied Moses with specific instructions and methods. God also knew Moses needed a pal, and had his brother Aaron join Moses. He knows us, and gives us what we need.

Because in the end, it’s always about God. Not about showing our abilities but being willing to do hard things for HIS glory. As messy and awkward as that can be, it just makes everything more obviously all about Him.

So when we have days, or seasons, when life is just hard, when obedience feels impossible: Remember Moses. From the start, his life was definitely stuck on hard mode, but God didn’t leave Moses. He asks us to do hard things but He is with us and helps us. It cultivates our relationship with God, increases our faith, and gives God glory. Moses stepped out in faith, and we can too because the God of Moses, is the same God we serve!