Availability Check
The good often cannibalizes the best. Think about it: How often do schedules, long to-do lists and our immediate line of sight trump the things we claim to love the most? A pile of laundry certainly seems insignificant the day a close friend wrecks her car or a parent falls ill. Certainly, life involves responsibility, but it also involves a need for responsiveness to urgent situations—a child struggling in school or a severely depressed coworker.
Moses was tending sheep—fulfilling a needed task—when God intervened with an urgent call. A bush burned without being consumed. God called Moses’ name from within the fiery bush. Moses immediately answered. Moses was available and obedient. But then God told him what he wanted: Moses was to go back to Egypt to lead a rescue mission for the Hebrew people.
In the midst of our ordinary days—tending to our families, our jobs, our friends—how do we respond to the persistent pull of God’s call? Regardless of how God makes his wishes known—a burning bush, a burning desire or a burning need—are we willing to have our tidy plans and schedules interrupted to listen to his voice? Or are we too busy or too distracted to answer? Bottom line: Are we willing to be recruited at God’s bidding?
Like Moses, we may feel inadequate for the job: “I’m just a student, just a mother, just an hourly employee. I’m not equipped for this mission!” However, when God calls us to do something bigger than we think we can accomplish, he will equip us by working through us. We learn to rely on his strength, not on our own abilities. Simply put, God doesn’t look for abilities; he looks for availabilities. That’s how we can be confident of success: His great power trumps our lack of talent. We act in the power of the great “I AM” (3:14).
So when you hear the voice of God calling your name, answer without hesitation, “Here I am.”
God’s call. God’s strength. Your availability.
When the LORD saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!” And Moses said, “Here I am.”
Reflection
1. In what ways has God indicated he has something for you to do, and how have you responded?
2. Recount a time when you felt inadequate to do something you knew God wanted you to do. How did God equip you to accomplish it?
3. What interferes with your availability to answer God’s call?
Related Readings
“In a very real sense, not one of us is qualified, but it seems that God continually chooses the most unqualified to do his work, to bear his glory.”
Madeleine L’Engle
This devotion is from the NIV New Women's Devotional Bible or True Identity by Zondervan. Used with permission.