When God Breaks Through Our Smokescreens
By Jennifer Slattery
“God said to Moses, ‘I Am Who I Am.’ This is what you are to say to the Israelites, I Am has sent me to you.” Exodus 3:14
When do our questions become smokescreens grounded in disobedience?
When God first called me to write, His command was clear. He spoke to my heart and reiterated it in Scripture and sermons. But I allowed fear to dominate my behavior and deceived myself into believing my delay was simply asking for confirmation.
God, however, wouldn’t be fooled. After a period of silence prompted by my disobedience, He broke through my self-deluded veneer.
It’d been a dark, lonely year, filled with a growing sense of futility and unrest when God’s voice seemed to grow softer, less discernable, and our intimacy waned. Until one afternoon, frustrated, I prayed, “Just tell me what You want me to do. Whatever it is, I’ll obey.”
His response filled my heart, quick and clear: “I’ve already told you.”
He didn’t need to explain or expand. I knew, and that very afternoon, I surrendered to the Great I Am, the One who formed me, knew me, and had a plan for me. The moment I did, my heart lifted as peace and joy flooded in.
I thought of this encounter, and my eventual surrender, when I read Moses’s responded to his call. God had made His will clear, in a miraculous way—He spoke through a burning bush.
Moses’s response: “Who am I to do this?”
When God persisted, Moses tried again, “Okay, then who should I say sent me?”
God responded not by chastising him but instead, of centering Moses in truth. The I Am, the eternally existing, all-powerful, all-knowing, unchanging One was sending him, and nothing, not even a rich and powerful Pharaoh, could thwart God’s plans—not for Moses, not for the people of Israel, nor for you and I.
Jennifer Slattery is a writer, editor, speaker, and the founder of Wholly Loved Ministries. She writes for Crosswalk, is the author of eight contemporary novels, and helped write Wholly Loved’s Bible study based on the life of Sarai (Gen. 12-23) titled Becoming His Princess, available for free (in ebook form) from Wholly Loved Ministries. When not writing, reading, or editing, Jennifer loves going on mall outings with her adult daughter and coffee dates with her hilariously fun husband. Visit her online at jenniferslatterylivesoutloud.com.
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Originally published Friday, 07 April 2023.
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