Can God still use me?
The question haunts me when I’m feeling old, when I look back at my biggest failures, and when I doubt my ability to do anything above mediocre.
How gracious God was to point out that Moses―the prophet, leader, and judge who led God’s people out of Egypt, wrote the Law, and met God face to face―basically asked the same question.
When God called Moses, the man had all my excuses up his sleeve.
- He was old! 80 to be exact!
- He’d failed big-time. In fact, he’d committed murder.
- He was inadequate. “But Moses said to the LORD, “Oh, my Lord, I am not eloquent, either in the past or since you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and of tongue” (Exodus 4:10).
Moses was a reluctant leader with his own set of weaknesses. But God didn’t need a leader who was young, perfect, or multi-talented. He needed one who would answer His call like Moses did.
“God called to him [Moses] out of the bush, ‘Moses! Moses!’ And Moses said, ‘Here I am’ (Exodus 3:4).
Moses didn’t for a minute think he was up to the task, he had a checkered past, and he had a lot of gray hair. But none of that mattered.
God wanted a man who was aware of his weaknesses, but was willing to depend on God.
“Here I am.”
That’s all God requires of me, too. He’s aware that I’m weak, but in God’s economy, “when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:10). In other words, when I depend on His power rather than my own, that’s when He supplies all the strength I need.
Not only can God still use us―in spite of all our weaknesses―but God will use us to show the world that we are weak, but He is strong.
