The Great I Am

But Moses protested, “If I go to the people of Israel and tell them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ they will ask me, ‘What is His name?’ Then what should I tell them?”  God replied to Moses, “I Am Who I Am. Say this to the people of Israel: I Am has sent me to you.” God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel: Yahweh, the God of your ancestors—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you. This is My eternal name, My name to remember for all generations. Exodus 3:13-15
 
Many of you have probably heard of the poem called ‘Footprints in The Sand.’ To sum it up, a person has a dream where he was walking with God on a beach, and the beach represents that person’s life. There are two sets of footprints as they look at his/her life, and as they look back, there were times where there is only one set of footprints. Those times were the person’s lowest and saddest times. They questioned God why He left them during those times. God answered, “When you saw only one set of footprints, it was then that I carried you.” In my life, I looked at the times where I was successful amidst some daunting challenges, and I asked myself how exactly I made it through it. The truth is I should know by now it was not by my own will. It was by God’s. He is indeed the all-powerful who can move mountains and carry us even when we ourselves have nothing left to give.
 
We must always remember that when we can’t do something, God always can. As I continue my focus on the story of Moses, we left off talking about him asking the question we all ask God when facing insurmountable odds. “Who am I?” As much as I know how omnipotent God is, I, like Moses, will still question God’s ability to do things. The reality is when that happens, I have chosen to be God. I want to be the person who makes it happen. I’m the one in control (see how one falls off the apple cart of ‘control’ so easy?). But God in today’s verse reminded Moses of who was really in charge. It brings me to a point my spiritual mentor made me aware of. In verse 14, God answered “Who I am.” Note what is at play are a couple words; am I and I am. Let’s put these words into action. Whenever we are answering, ‘I am,’ we are taking the place of God. However, when we ask of God, ‘am I,’ we allow God to be the answer. To be clear, this does NOT necessarily mean we leave it to God and move on. As Moses did, we move forward with God doing His will and trusting Him to be the ‘I am’ when things are not moving as we would like them to.
 
God is in control. Yes, we all say it, but what this means is we must be willing to submit to His authority before we even reach our barriers. Moses is a great reminder of what is indeed possible when we take our need for control out of the equation and insert God’s authority in. This is how we can achieve success against insurmountable odds. Let us trust God not just when the mountain is too tall. Let us trust Him to be with us the entire journey. What journey are you needing to place in God’s hand today? How can you ensure that your life is in God’s hands and not yours?
 
My prayer today is that we give up control singing the song of God as ‘The Great I Am!’

Amen.
 
Want to get notified when new blogs are posted?  Subscribe here
 
~Kent
 
Please share this blog.  Simply click the share button below, or copy the URL. 
 
About Kent:
“I am what all Christians are: flawed and always growing. I am not immune to failure, and I don’t always do the right things, but I learn from my mistakes, and always show love to all who I know. Furthermore, through Christ I have joy knowing I have His grace even though I didn’t deserve it and His love even as I can’t imagine it. I have written devotion for the past 14 years using my life’s experiences both before and after being born again and focusing on its relevance to Biblical teachings and today’s culture.”
 

Leave a Reply