I often come in contact with people who are quick to tell me that they are not very eloquent in speech and uncertain about their ability to speak to others about the good news of the Gospel. My response is always the same: your success in sharing the Gospel is not found in your speech, but in your Savior!
Moses learned this truth in his very first encounter with God:
Moses said to the Lord, “Pardon your servant, Lord. I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue.” The Lord said to him, “Who gave human beings their mouths? Who makes them deaf or mute? Who gives them sight or makes them blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.”
(Exodus 4:10-12)
Moses tried every trick in the book to get out of the call God had placed in his life! Moses was so concerned about his inadequacies that he came up with one excuse after another in hopes that God would cancel his call and let him go back to tending his sheep. Moses said . . .
- I can’t do it!
- They won’t believe me!
- I can’t speak well!
- Find someone else!
The mistake Moses made is the same mistake we all make from time to time: we look at ourselves rather than at our Savior! Moses was exactly right when he said he could not do what God was calling him to do; he could not do it in his own natural strength. But God was not sending Moses in his natural strength, but rather, in His supernatural strength. God had no intention of sending Moses to deliver God’s people in his natural strength; God was sending Moses in the strength of the Almighty, and in that strength, nothing would be able to stand in his way.
God did not call Moses as His mouthpiece because he was a gifted speaker—but because he was not—which would make it all the more clear who was the One responsible for freeing the Israelites from bondage. Moses’ success would not be found in his speech, but in his Savior. Without God, the most eloquent speaker in the world is nothing more than a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal (1 Corinthians 13:1). You see, the power is contained in the Word of God, not in how we deliver it. People are not saved by human rhetoric, but by our Holy Redeemer.
The apostle Paul fully understood this truth; he wrote to the church at Corinth:
Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not in cleverness of speech, so that the cross of Christ would not be made void.
(1 Corinthians 1:17 NASB, emphasis added)
When was the last time you felt a bit inadequate in speaking on behalf of your Lord? Perhaps you have convinced yourself that you aren’t very clever in your speech. Remember, God made your tongue and gave you your speech, and He has every intention to use you to expand the cause of His kingdom with exactly the equipment He gave you! God never calls without equipping, and you have been given a supernatural power that far surpasses the most fluent speaker the world has ever known.
What God said to Moses through the burning bush, He is saying to you this day, “Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.” Keep this truth before you: success will never be found in your speech, but only in your Savior!
This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!
Grace for the Race 