Trust Courage and Snakes

 

 

Trust Courage and Snakes

It was my turn now. My turn, as a fifteen year old student, to climb the steps up to the podium at the state capitol in our state. It was my turn to give my speech to the other students in the mock government voting assembly. I was running for Sergeant at Arms and all I could think of was how my  arms and legs were shaking so hard I could barely walk. As I approached the microphone I stumbled and dropped my notes all over the floor!

  Oh, I thought I’d die right there on the spot of embarrassment. But then an odd thought came into my mind. That’s when I recalled, of all things, Moses and the snake.

“But Moses protested again, “What if they won’t believe me or listen to me?

 What if they say, ‘The LORD never appeared to you?

Then the LORD asked him, “What is that in your hand?”

“A shepherd’s staff,” Moses replied.

“Throw it down on the ground,” the LORD told him.

So Moses threw down the staff, and it turned into a snake! Moses jumped back.

Then the LORD told him, “Reach out and grab its tail.”

So Moses reached out and grabbed it, and it turned back into a shepherd’s staff in his hand.”
 Exodus 4:1-4 NLT

 

Just like me, Moses had a fear of speaking in public, and it also was evident how much he feared snakes. But when God asked him to go back and pick it up, Moses didn’t hesitate. Sometimes, I realized, God will ask us to do a hard thing and go back to pick up the snake. We must trust in Him beyond our fears.  

We often worry about how events will unfold in our minds and then we panic over what might go wrong. But God doesn’t ask us to go where He has not provided for our means, where He will meet us there and give us the strength and the courage to complete it.

I didn’t win the election but I walked away with a happy heart that I completed the speech.  God had given me courage to pick myself up and carry on.

 Sometimes, at just the exact moment, God will bring us a memory of snakes to give us courage to let us know we can trust and depend on Him in the things He asks us to do.

 “When we try to do something on our own, fail and then realize that we must wait on Him, our hearts overflow with thanksgiving and praise as He rises up and does what we cannot do ourselves.”― Joyce Meyer, from Battlefield of the Mind”

 

“Trust Courage and Snakes” by Dee Kamp, Grace Every Morning Ministries© January 27, 2014