Getting Real with God

How real do you get with God?

When you talk to Him, are you honest? Do you show your most real self?

Do you speak to your friends or family one way and reserve only a special tone for God?

Now, what if God were acting in a way you felt he shouldn’t. Would you tell him?

What if God was asking you to do something you didn’t want to do – or didn’t feel equipped to do. Would you beg him not to make you do it?

It’s like every mom on the phone. With kids screaming in the background, she pulls the phone away from her ear, covering the mic to scream at the kids. Then, quickly composing herself, she gathers her sweet voice and returns to the conversation at hand, “Sorry about that, darlin’. Now, where were we?”

When you talk to God, are you the real mom who screams at her kids? Or are you the sweet voice that pretends to be all cool, calm, and collected (when things clearly aren’t.)?

Here’s the funny thing — God knows the real you, no matter what manner or voice you go to him with. But, that’s not why we are here today so we’ll just keep moving on.

Moses Gets Real

So, why are we talking about getting real with God? Well, I am going to introduce you to Moses. If you don’t know him, it’s time you do. If you do sort of know him, then you likely just associate him with the parting the Red Sea. But, if you really know something about Moses and his story, then you know he has no problem getting real with God – like, at all.

Moses didn’t kick off life like everyone else. He was born at a time when Pharoah had ordered midwives to kill all male babies born to Hebrew women. His mother and father, however, kept him for a bit, then wrapped him up and placed him in a basket to float on the Nile River.

Through a series of events, Moses ends up getting adopted by the Pharoah’s own daughter – and eventually lives with the Pharoah. Crazy, right? Anyways, he is highly favored by God and is called by him to ask the Pharoah to release the Israelites who have been enslaved for over 400 years.

Sure, this is a pretty big task, right? I mean, going to the Pharoah with such a request. What would you do? Can you think of a time when God asked you to do something HUGE? How did you react? How did that convo go between you and God?

Well, here’s how it went down between Moses and God… See, God was telling Moses that he would be with him. He was letting him know that it was going to be difficult, but that he’d be there along the way giving him help.

But, Moses, he was so full of questions and, quite honestly, seemed a bit overwhelmed by the task at hand. He wanted God to choose someone else!

Moses asked questions like, “Who am I to appear before Pharoah? Who am I to lead the people of Israel out of Egypt?” and “What if they won’t believe me or listen to me? What if they say ‘The Lord never appeared to you’?”

Then, finally, he breaks down. “Oh Lord, I’m not very good with words. I never have been, and I’m not now, even though you have spoken to me. I get tongue-tied and my words get tangled.”…”Lord please! Send anyone else!”

Read the passages in Exodus 3 and 4.

It’s like when your boss requests that you handle a big project — and you tell him/her “eh, no thanks. Go ahead and choose someone else, please.” Not really the best way to keep a job, right? Of course, this isn’t a boss — it is God. Which is, well, majorly magnified!

Here’s the best part, though. And, I had to read it a few times as my eyes bulged out of my head and a chuckle came from somewhere deep inside me. In Exodus 32, Moses was on Mount Sinai with God hashing out the terms of the covenant when things went a bit haywire down on the ground with the Israelites.

God sees what is going on and tells Moses that he needs to head down to his people and straighten everything out. Beginning in Exodus 32:9, he says “…I have seen how stubborn and rebellious these people are. Now leave me alone so my fierce anger can blaze against them, and I will destroy them. Then I will make you, Moses, into a great nation.”

How would you react to that? Most people I think would simply say, “Sure thing, God. I’m going.” And leave.

Not Moses. No, no. Here’s what he tells God.

“…Why are you so angry with your own people whom you brought from the land of Egypt with such great power and such a strong hand? … Turn away from your fierce anger. Change your mind about this terrible disaster you have threatened against your people!” (Exodus 32:11-12)

Yikes! Moses actually told God to calm down! Can you imagine?