The Great I Am

But Moses protested, “If I go to the people of Israel and tell them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ they will ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what should I tell them?”

God replied to Moses, “I am who I am. Say this to the people of Israel: I am has sent me to you.”  God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel: Yahweh, the God of your ancestors—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.

This is my eternal name,
    my name to remember for all generations.  Exodus 3:13-15

Many of you have probably heard of the poem called ‘Footprints in The Sand.’  To sum it up, a person has a dream where he was walking with God on a beach, and the beach represents that person’s life.  There are two sets of footprints as they look at his/her life, and as they look back, there were times where there is only one set of footprints.  Those times were the person’s lowest and saddest times.  They questioned God why He left them during those times.  God answered, “When you saw only one set of footprints, it was then that I carried you.” In my life, I looked at the times where I was successful amidst some daunting challenges, and I asked myself how exactly I made it through it.  The truth is I should know by now it was not by my own will.  It was by God’s.  He is indeed the all-powerful who can move mountains and carry us even when we ourselves have nothing left to give.

We must always remember that when we can’t do something, God always can.  As I continue my focus on the story of Moses, we left off talking about him asking the question we all ask God when facing insurmountable odds.  “Who am I?”  As much as I know how omnipotent God is, I, like Moses, will still question God’s ability to do things.  The reality is when that happens, I have chosen to be God.  I want to be the person who makes it happen.  I’m the one in control (see how one falls off the apple cart of ‘control’ so easy?).  But God in today’s verse reminded Moses of who was really in charge.  It brings me to a point my spiritual mentor made me aware of.  In verse 14, God answered “Who I am.”  Note what is at play are a couple words; am I and I am.  Let’s put these words into action.  Whenever we are answering, ‘I am,’ we are taking the place of God.  However, when we ask of God, ‘am I,’ we allow God to be the answer.  To be clear, this does NOT necessarily mean we leave it to God and move on.  As Moses did, we move forward with God doing His will and trusting Him to be the ‘I am’ when things are not moving as we would like them to.

God is in control.  Yes, we all say it, but what this means is we must be willing to submit to His authority before we even reach our barriers.  Moses is a great reminder of what is indeed possible when we take our need for control out of the equation and insert God’s authority in.  This is how we can achieve success against insurmountable odds.  Let us trust God not just when the mountain is too tall.  Let us trust Him to be with us the entire journey.  What journey are you needing to place in God’s hand today?  How can you ensure that your life is in God’s hands and not yours?  My prayer today is that give up control singing the song of God as ‘The Great I Am!’  Amen.

God's 'Plan A'

You are the light of the world—like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden.  No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house.  In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father.  Matthew 5:14-16

Monday marked my 50^th birthday.  In taking a moment to pause in reflect, I felt God tugging at me and making me uncomfortable.  I felt pushed to be more daring and willing to challenge my own comfort level.  Here is one area where I felt challenged; doing instead of just praying.  I have heard a lot of people speaking of the world being fallen and that the country needs to repent and turn to God after the many recent deaths of both civilians and police officers.  That on the surface sounds like a wonderful idea, and yes, we should always pray for more God in the world.  However that’s when I stopped to think about it.  Do we sometimes use praying for God to come down as an excuse to not do His work?  Another way of putting this is, do we leave things for God to handle just because it is either too uncomfortable or inconvenient for us to do it?

While God can certainly handle anything, sometimes we need to acknowledge we are Plan A.  I love these words from Jesus because it serves as a rallying cry.  It speaks to empowerment saying that we have God’s power to do His will whenever called on.  We often look at God as the Almighty, The great I Am, and many other terms of respect for His authority.  However we often fail to remember that through the Holy Spirit, God resides right within us.  I am not saying that we ourselves our God.  What I am saying is that we are often called upon to be His vessel, and as such must act to as one of my favorite sermons once said, “Go out and do!”  Thus whenever a situation calls for prayer, we must first pray to God what He wants from us.  It might be to just pray for help, but many times, He wants us to get our hands dirty and help someone.

God has given us so much!  He gives us His grace, love, and protection, but He also gives us power.  There is a saying that sometimes you ask the question, and sometimes, the answer is you.  Today’s verses say that we are His advocates for change and enlightenment in the world.  It is no wonder Jesus ends the book of Matthew saying, “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth.  Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.  Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”  So let us be that light shining on the hilltop that cannot be hidden!  What do you need to change in your life to accommodate what God is asking of you?  How can you better discern when God wants prayer or commands actions?  My prayer is that we embrace that role of sometimes being His ‘Plan A.’ Amen.