The following is a part of our weekly devotional series, which is a companion to the 2013 Foursquare Life Journal. This week’s Bible reading comes from Exodus 1 – 20; Luke 21 – 24; Psalm 21, 88; and Acts 1 – 3.
In this week’s reading, “Moses said to God, ‘Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?’ So He said, ‘I will certainly be with you. And this shall be a sign to you that I have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain’ ” (Ex. 3:11 – 12, NKJV).
I’ve been a lot of people during the course of my life.
I’ve been the quiet girl. The loud girl. The funny girl. The serious girl. I’ve been the girl who can fearlessly speak to a room full of boisterous junior highers and the girl who can’t manage to find her voice in front of three people. Human identity is slippery like that.
Trying to figure yourself out is a cruel task delegated to twenty-somethings, and I’m one of millions attempting to define the word “me.” In a culture that is caught up in transition, a country that’s constantly reshaping, even a church that some days seems unsure of exactly who it is, how in the world are we meant to know who we are? Amidst a thousand variables that are constantly at war in my heart, how do I define myself?
Long before I was born and started wrestling with who I am, Moses said, “Lord, who am I to face all the power of Egypt?”
And God said, “I am with you.”
God defined Moses’ identity and capability by His presence. “Moses, you are the man that God is with. Who are you to do this? The guy that God is with. That’s who.”
God chose to give Moses the identity of “the man with whom God walked.” And He’s chosen to give that to you and me. God has given us the option to define ourselves by Him. My identity is not the clothes I’m wearing today, or the blog I am writing, or the book I’m reading; it’s the fact that I’m the girl, regardless of circumstance, whom God is with. I’m the girl He won’t leave.
That was true for Moses. Don’t get me wrong; after that promise, Moses had ups and downs. He parted the Red Sea, was scorned by the community he was selflessly serving, was denied access to the Promised Land, and saw God face to face. But God’s promise and Moses’ identity weren’t dependent on those good or bad things. When Moses was rejected, when he was hurt, when he finally laid down his head to die, he was the man God was with.
Just like Moses, you and I will have our ups and downs, and sometimes we will feel like we’re the people God forgot, not the people He loves desperately. But we have a choice. We can spend our lives doubting our identity, or we can decide that whether the Red Sea is parting at our touch or crashing on our heads, we are the people whom God is with. That is who we are.
By: Jennifer Marsh, Emerging Leader Network (ELN) student, currently an Anthem third-year intern in the pastoral care/equipping track.
Download the yearlong reading plan (PDF, 80 KB), or sign up for the full, online version of the Life Journal. To purchase a Life Journal for your own use or to place a bulk order for church-wide use, visit www.foursquarejournal.com. To learn more about Foursquare’s 2013 Life Journal project, click here.
