Chew on this for just a minute (from Henry Blackaby’s Devotional): “One of the great challenges of the Christian life is determining what God does not want us to do!
Talk about a twist. One I don’t often think about. But his point is important – “in our zeal to please God and advance His kingdom, we Christians often take on responsibilities God never intended us to have.”
Okay, I am usually trying to discern where God is leading me, what is His will, what He does want me to do. I am not nearly so good at slowing down when I become aware of a need. I ever-so-quickly assume God wants me to meet it – otherwise, why would He be revealing it to me? Whoops! I needed to hear Blackaby’s lesson on this.
Moses is my helpful example in this story from Exodus 18:14 “What is this thing that you’re doing for the people? Why are you alone sitting as judge, while all the people stand around you from morning until evening?”
What’s going on? Moses recognized the Israelites he led through the wilderness were formerly slaves – and slavery was all they knew for so long a time that they didn’t know anything else but how to behave as a slave. They were in disputes and arguments with each other because they had never learned how to live together as the people of God – their background was doing what their master told them to do and how they were told to do it. Period. And they did what Moses told them as they followed him through God’s leading them out of Egypt and into the wilderness.
So they naturally brought their disputes to Moses asking him to “inquire of God” and make a decision between one man and another. Moses saw the need and took it upon himself to meet this need while he also taught them God’s statutes and laws.
Isn’t that a good thing? Aren’t we to be conciliators, ambassadors of Christ? Isn’t it serving the Lord to help settle disputes and teach others about God’s ways?
Yeah, but! It was Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, who was actually an outsider, who spotted the problem. Sure, everyone saw the long lines of unhappy people hoping to have their cases heard, standing before Moses each day, as the verse said “from morning until evening”. Moses was, as Blackaby put it, “Carrying the weight of his nation’s problems on his shoulders.” Jethro challenged the wisdom of Moses’ actions. Verse 17 states it well: “What you’re doing is not good….You will certainly wear out both yourself and these people who are with you, because the task is too heavy for you. You can’t do it alone.”
Blackaby extracts this key point: In doing this service alone, Moses was robbing others of an opportunity to serve the Lord. He was also doing a disservice to his people, who otherwise could have had their issues resolved much sooner. And as Jethro observed, Moses was wearing himself out trying to do what was impossible for one person.
Just as I have done so often in the past, I assume that because the cause is good and my motive is pure in wanting to help, then it must be what I need to do and I jump in. As a wise person pointed out, the trouble was not the work, it was the method: alone, all day, every day, with no end in sight. Sincerity and importance do not make a method wise.
We can burn out doing the very thing God called us to — for no other reason than that we are doing it in a way no human being could sustain. Alone. And yes, that includes seeking God’s counsel. First – God, is this what YOU want me to do. Second – if it is, how do YOU want me to go about this?
In addition, Moses was robbing others of an opportunity to serve the Lord – a disservice to his people and other leaders (who, by the way, he eventually appointed as judges to help with the load – way to go, Moses!).
Check out verses 25-26: “So Moses chose able men from all Israel and made them leaders over the people as commanders of thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens. They judged the people at all times; they would bring the hard cases to Moses, but they would judge every minor case themselves.”
I do appreciate Blackaby’s wisdom on this as he shares that when we become aware of a need, we should not automatically assume God wants us to meet it – or do it alone — no matter how good the cause, etc. “The only reason to perform ministry is that God clearly tells you it is His will.”
What’s a key “tell” in these situations? If you are feeling overwhelmed by all that you are doing, you are probably doing more than God has asked, explains Blackaby.
His wisdom? “Pray carefully about the assignments you take on, so that you don’t rob yourself and others of God’s best.”
Just wondering, is that too long a sentence to get tattooed across my forehead?
