In the Bible, when God calls someone to do something, you will notice they don’t jump up and say, ‘No problem, I’m ready.’ In story after story, they tell God why they can’t do it. Consider the following list of people. Moses: ‘I have never been eloquent…I am slow of speech and tongue’ (Exodus 4:10 NIV). Gideon: ‘How can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family’ (Judges 6:15 NIV). Abraham: ‘Will a son be born to a man a hundred years old?’ (Genesis 17:17 NIV). Jeremiah: ‘Alas, Sovereign Lord…I am too young’ (Jeremiah 1:6 NIV). Isaiah: ‘Woe to me!…For I am a man of unclean lips’ (Isaiah 6:5 NIV). Esther: ‘All…know that for any man or woman who approaches the king…without being summoned the king has but one law: that they be put to death’ (Esther 4:11 NIV). Rich young ruler: ‘He went away sad, because he had great wealth’ (Matthew 19:22 NIV). Saul: ‘The Lord said, “See, he has hidden himself among the baggage”’ (1 Samuel 10:22 NRSV). (This occurred when Samuel was proclaiming Saul as king, and the people couldn’t find him and asked the Lord where he was.) What a list of excuses: too inarticulate, too weak, too old, too young, too sinful, too dangerous, too rich, too hesitant – yet God used every one of them to fulfil His purposes. And Paul tells us why: ‘Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God.’ Today, depend on God.
