Whenever I go fishing, I have no problem baiting the hook, casting the line or reeling in the fish. I do, however, have a difficult time taking the fish off the hook and replacing a broken line. I always have someone else do those tasks for me. Because of this, I can never go fishing alone. Otherwise, once I’ve caught a fish, or if my line should break, my fishing trip would be over.
It is so easy to stand back and let others do what we fear doing for ourselves. And in doing so, we miss out on a great reward. When I think about this, Moses comes to mind. In Exodus chapters 3–4, Moses does his best to convince God that someone else should go speak to Pharaoh:
But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt” (Exodus 3:11 NIV)?
Moses answered, “What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, ‘The LORD did not appear to you’” (Exodus 4:1 NIV)?
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” (Exodus 4:10 NIV).
But Moses said, “Pardon your servant, Lord. Please send someone else” (Exodus 4:13 NIV).
God finally tells Moses that his brother, Aaron, could go with him and do the speaking for him:
He will speak to the people for you, and it will be as if he were your mouth and as if you were God to him (Exodus 4:16 NIV).
Oh what a blessing Moses gave up to his brother!
Moses wasn’t even willing to try and do it himself. He allowed his fear to come between him and a blessing. All he had to do was ask God for the courage.
Like Moses, we may have fear whenever God lays someone on our hearts. What if that person doesn’t want my help? What if she tries to avoid me? We have a lot of the same fears that Moses had, yet we can learn a lesson from Moses. He is an example of how your fear can get in the way of doing God’s will. But we must not give into that fear. We need to ask God for the strength and courage to do it ourselves.
We need to be brave and “take our own fish off the hook”!
Debbie Mitchell