I Love It When a Plan Comes Together

In the 80's a popular show called the A-Team featured a character who, after the successful completion of a seemingly impossible mission, would always say, "I love it when a plan comes together!" A week ago Sunday I talked about obeying the nudges God gives, which are sometimes small and sometimes as big as a burning bush. This past week I talked about how doing what God wants is often difficult to do, but that his plan always works. When we follow him both of us end up saying, "I love it when a plan comes together!"

The text we used was, Exodus 4:18-29 where Moses sets out for Egypt in response to God's calling to free Israel from slavery. Moses tells his father-in-law that he is going to go back to Egypt to see if any of his relatives are still alive. Does that sound confident to you? Is this a man on a mission, full of passion for God's call on his life? No, he sounds like someone who is filled with doubt. This is good news for me because--I have doubts, too. Moses was a super star believer...but he doubted. This passage leads me to one conclusion: When doing what God wants, it is normal to have doubts and imagine problems, because following God is difficult and foreign.

Here is a probable list of some of Moses' doubts:
a. Will they kill me when I show up?
b. How will Pharaoh react?
c. Will Aaron buy in to my leadership and accept his role?
d. Are the people still alive?
e. How will the people respond to my leadership?

In Exodus 4 God helps Moses' with all his doubts; but he did it because of vs. 20. In spite of his doubts, Moses,

“...took his wife and sons and put them on a donkey for the return trip to Egypt. He had a firm grip on the staff of God.”

The key is to obey and hold on to God.

We will never overcome our doubts, waiting for God to remove them before we act. God always wants us to have faith and take the first step for which he then rewards us. It makes following God stressful sometimes, but always exhilirating! God dealt with each of Moses' doubts but it was only after Moses dealt with his own unwillingness to trust God. And that's when the plan starts coming together!