God's Power

        When I was young, I like to do the things that kids do best, play with friends. We would do all sorts of wild things during the three summer months before going back to school in the fall. I didn't look forward to school because I had a speech problem. I stuttered. It was really bad and most of my relatives tried at one point or another to get me to say the most difficult words. My Aunt Hattie was adamant that I was going to say the word, “radish.” I sounded like a cheer leader with my strings of ra ra ra ra, but the word “radish” never came out. Aunt Hattie would get in my face just inches away and say the word louder and louder but it did not good for me. It just got worse. I avoided public speaking wherever I could including school, college, the Navy and my time with A. T. and T. Co. Exodus 410-12 says, “ And Moses said unto the LORD, O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore, nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant: but I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue. And the LORD said unto him, Who hath made man's mouth? or who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind? have not I the LORD? Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say.”

          Moses may or may not have been plagued with stuttering, but whatever it was, he felt that he was the most inadequate to be put in a position of leadership especially the top dog in getting the people out of Israel. After meeting with God in the burning bush scene, Moses tries to come up with every excuse possible to convince God that he was not the man for the job. Moses, however, was going to be the man that God wanted and it was going to be Moses that would eventually stand before the most powerful man in the world at that time, the Pharaoh of Egypt and then to demand that the Pharaoh let the people of Israel depart from the land of Egypt. We know the rest of the story which is filled with ups and downs of the Israelites as they leave the land and head for the promised land. We know it because it is history in the Word of God and has been put there for our learning. We can be sure that when God chooses you to do a job, He is going to make sure that you do it well. It won't be just adequate, it will be the best you have ever done anything before, because it has been empowered by God. In my own life, I might also mention that my stuttering became controllable once I decided to go into the ministry. I can't say anything else about how it took place or that my brain and my tongue were in sync or whatever else it might have been. I just know that now I can stand and declare the Word of God to others and that all the glory belong to God because He made it all possible. God has always done marvelous things with the people He has chosen to accomplish them. God has used men like Martin Luther, John Calvin, Tyndale, Wycliffe, Knox, Scofield, Chafer, MacArthur, Jeremiah, to proclaim the message that He has given them to proclaim to the people of their respective lands. They could have done nothing without the guidance and control of God in their lives. Some of them even gave their lives for what they were doing but they never recanted their faith in God to anyone. God may have directed you through His Word to be faithful in some task that He has given you to do. Be assured that He will give you the strength and the power to do it. In the end, when you will look back on it, you may find yourself surprised how God has used your simple tools in a sophisticated world. Praise God for His working in all of our lives to be His messenger wherever we are planted.