1. Confidence in Your Calling

But Moses said to God, “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt?” And He said, “Assuredly I will be with you, and this shall be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall worship God at this mountain.” Then Moses said to God, “Behold, I am going to the sons of Israel, and I will say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you.’ Now they may say to me, ‘What is His name?’ What shall I say to them?” And God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM”; and He said, “This is what you shall say to the sons of Israel: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” -Exodus 3:11-14

“If my life was the only evidence that Christ was alive, would anyone be convinced?” Rosaria Butterfield describes how she struggled with this worry in her novel “The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert.” Awakened to the calling to share God’s salvation with others, she found herself doubting her capability. Maybe you resonate with that same feeling of insufficiency.

In the book of Exodus, we see Moses struggle with confidence as well. God calls Moses to be the deliverer of his people, the Israelites, from their slavery in Egypt. But Moses, hesitant to accept God’s calling, replies in disbelief, saying, “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt?” Moses doesn’t think he’s the right guy for the job.

God reaffirms Moses with his presence. He says, “Certainly I will be with you.” But Moses is still afraid. He asks God what he should say when the Israelites ask him God’s name. In other words, he needs some validation to prove that he actually met with God and received this calling. God responds to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM... say to the sons of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” The name “I AM”, or Yahweh in the Hebrew, implies that God has no beginning and no end. He is independent from all other forces, and everything else is dependent on him. He is constant and unchanging. He is the absolute standard of truth and reality.

This name and its implications are so significant because they are the basis of Moses’s calling. God and his attributes serve as Moses’s credentials. Because the one and only God sent Moses, Moses can be trusted as the leader of the Israelites. And because this God is greater than everything else in the world, Moses can carry out his assignment in confidence as he leads his people towards their future of freedom and new life.

Moses was uniquely called by God for a special purpose. But God has called us as believers to a special purpose as well. This calling is to go and make disciples, a disciple being someone who is committed to following Christ as their Lord and Savior. Put simply, we make disciples by reflecting Christ and his love to the world, through both actions and words.

The working-out of this calling may look different from person to person...Teachers share the love of Christ with their students, parents with their kids, employees with their co-workers, students with their classmates... But no matter what sphere God places you in, your calling remains the same: go and make disciples. We are called to point people towards spiritual freedom and life in God.

Like Moses, you may question your competency to carry out this calling. But the good news is, our calling as Christians is not based on our performance or abilities. It’s not based on our occupation or relationship status or age. It’s not based on our successes and failures. Our calling is based on God and his character. Just like Moses, we get our credentials and our confidence to carry out our calling from God. Our message means something because it was given by the one and only God. And our confidence is valid because God’s presence is with us!