Exo 4:10  And Moses said unto the LORD, O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore, nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant: but I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue.

Excuses, excuses and excuses. Was Moses really speech handicapped? The evangelist Stephen in his sermon said: “Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and in deeds” (Acts 7:22). Egypt had taught Moses everything he needed to know and he was mighty in his speech. Moses was making an excuse when God called him.

When we do not feel like doing a certain task, we will come up with an excuse. And, many a Christian today is coming up with one excuse after another for not serving God. In essence what Moses is saying to God is – I can’t talk; I get tongue tied; I’m not a good public speaker; and I do not speak well – my grammar is terrible.

Moses didn’t think he was a great speaker. He probably stuttered somewhat. He probably didn’t have perfect grammar too. But most belong to this same group of speakers – we don’t have pitch perfect voice and we make grammatical mistakes. Admittedly, most of us do not have a great speaking voice, but that does not mean we cannot serve God.

When God calls us to do His good work, we may not always be comfortable in the calling. And we follow Moses—coming up with all the excuses of why we aren’t the ones to do His will. Well, God is angry when we make excuses (Exodus 4:14).

God is glorified when great things are done through us (Matthew 5:16). When Christ was selecting His apostles, He didn’t go to the universities to recruit scholars and professors. He didn’t go to radio stations to recruit those who have “radio voices”. He went to the ordinary folks and recruited fishermen, a tax collector, a thief, a revolution fighter and others.

We may not be the best in the things that we are doing but that does not excuse us from serving God. If life, you carry on in your job even though you are not the best. But you learn under those who have more experience in it. They aren’t the best either. My point is: How is it some continue to work even though they are not the best but when it comes to God’s work, they think they are not good enough and therefore, would not work?

I write this devotion daily. I don’t have a degree in the English language. In fact, English was not my strong subject while in school. If you are one who picks on grammar, I will probably fail in your English assessment. You will see my English is just Singlish (Singapore English) – My sentences are poorly constructed and my grammar atrocious. Yet, for those who are just as average in the language like me, they understand the message I’m conveying.

In worship, if we busy ourselves with picking out the grammatical and pronunciation errors of the preacher, we are not worshipping God. My oral message is even more horrible than my written words. Yet, I’m still teaching, preaching and writing. It’s not because I’m thick-skinned but that I believe all of us must be committed to the cause that we believe in – we believe and therefore we work: “We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak” (2 Corinthians 4:13).

If the faith is worth holding on to, it is worth committing our time and effort to it. Paul wrote: “For if there be first a willing mind, it is accepted according to that a man hath, and not according to that he hath not” (2 Corinthians 8:12). It means, just be yourself and do it. Let us be committed to the faith that we hold dearly to.

Jimmy Lau
Psa 119:97  Oh how love I thy law! It is my meditation all the day.