Picture this with me: You’re visiting with a friend that you’ve known for years. During the conversation, he tells you that he was lucky to survive a recent car accident.
God is opening a door for you to share the hope of Jesus with your friend, but you don’t know what to say. Rather than boldly sharing the Gospel, you shrink away and change the subject.
Many of us have had missed opportunities similar to this over the years. One of my greatest regrets is that I didn’t share the love of Christ with a couple in front of me, even though I clearly felt the Holy Spirit calling me to do so. I still feel the burden of that inaction today.
If you ask most people why they didn’t share their faith in a situation such as this, the answer would be “I didn’t know what to say,” or “I was afraid I wouldn’t know the answer to their questions or objections.”
If this is you, take heart! It’s interesting that one of the great heroes of the faith had the same fears and feelings of inadequacy.
In Exodus 4, Moses—the man who would lead the Jewish people out of slavery in Egypt, who would cross the Red Sea—was not a leader who inspired a lot of confidence. In fact, he was downright scared, and he knew his limitations.
Moses confessed to God in verse 10 that he was not a good communicator and could not lead people with his words. “O my Lord, I am not eloquent … I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.” We may say it differently here in the 21st century, but how many times have we expressed basically the same thing to God?
Of course, his excuses made it about as far as yours or mine. God basically responded, “Don’t worry. I’ve got this!”
God told Moses, “Who has made man’s mouth? Or who makes the mute, the deaf, the seeing, or the blind? Have not I, the Lord? Now therefore, go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall say” (Exodus 4:11-12).
What an incredible promise! God realized Moses’ human failings, that Moses might not know how or what to say. But it didn’t matter. It wasn’t the words of a broken and scared man, but the words of almighty God that came from the mouth of Moses.
If God did this for Moses, then God will do it for you and me as well. We must be obedient to God’s calling and prayerfully dependent upon Him in those moments as we boldly step out and trust that God will speak through us.
