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.”

The LORD said to him, “Who gave human beings their mouths? Who makes them deaf or mute? Who gives them sight or makes them blind? Is it not I, the LORD? Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say” (Ex 4: 10 – 12).

I sometimes wish that my mind could be quicker than it is. To be able to give a witty response to every situation and make the world laugh around me. To say just the right thing in the moment.

But Moses isn’t complaining about a shortage of comedic skills, or even a lack of wise rhetoric. His problem may have been more basic.

Some have suggested he had a speech impediment, making it difficult for him to express himself with confidence. Perhaps he didn’t feel he knew the language of the Egyptian royal court well enough to be understood. Or he might have been prone to panic attacks with the thought of standing up in front of others and making a speech.

Whatever the reason, Moses considered himself “slow of speech and tongue” therefore believed God had made a huge mistake in choosing him to be His spokesperson.

Towards the end of Jesus’ life, there is a hint that He guessed some of His disciples might struggle with public speaking, or even just articulating their faith to others when they needed to. “When you are brought before synagogues, rulers and authorities, do not worry about how you will defend yourselves or what you will say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what you should say” (Luke 12: 11 – 12).

In both of our passages today, the Lord promises to teach the person what they need to say.

I have found in my own life that speaking well does not come naturally to me. In my early years as a high school teacher, I did not have the natural confidence to address uninterested teenagers. And years later, serving in pastoral ministry, I will still agonise over the right words to share with a brother or a sister in a sensitive conversation.

But one thing I can say is that the Lord does help. He does give wisdom when you ask for it, even if you have to pray about it for a while, chew it over or seek advice. Over time, he has graciously allowed me to learn boldness, particularly when I know He has given me something to say.

And he can do the same for you.

One of the best preachers I have ever known, would often struggle with a stutter when he spoke. I think God helped him more than anyone knew, but He kept my friend reliant on Him at the same time.

The Lord will help us and teach us what to say, but never to the point where we become proud of our wisdom or oratory skills. If we can get that balance right, what an amazing thought it is that we might be a spokesperson for God himself.

“Your ways, God, are holy.

What god is as great as our God?

You are the God who performs miracles;

you display your power among the peoples.

With your mighty arm you redeemed your people,

the descendants of Jacob and Joseph” (Ps 77: 13 – 15).

This is a really good question to ask: What god is as great as our God?

Gods (with a small ‘g’) in the Bible were, of course, not gods at all. They were man-conceived and man-made. The writings of the Old Testament often refer to them as idols, statues of earthly creatures or representations of how ancient peoples imagined their deities would appear if they could see them. Made of wood, stone, or metal, some were small and portable, kept in tents or family dwellings; others were large, towering over worshippers in their temples.

Isaiah 40 describes the stupidity of creating idols, when they are compared to the living God.

“With whom, then, will you compare God?

To what image will you liken him?

As for an idol, a metalworker casts it,

and a goldsmith overlays it with gold

and fashions silver chains for it.

A person too poor to present such an offering

selects wood that will not rot;

they look for a skilled worker

to set up an idol that will not topple.

Do you not know?

Have you not heard?

Has it not been told you from the beginning?

Have you not understood since the earth was founded?

He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth (Is 40: 18 – 22)

Idols can topple over. Our God sits enthroned above the circle of the earth.

Why pray to something that humans have created, something that needs help standing up, when the One ruling the heavens and seated on the throne invites us to pray to Him? The One who performs miracles; the One who displays infinite power; the One who redeems us with His mighty arm. He invites us to worship and pray to Him.

Our modern-day idols are just as worthless. We might not bow the knee to a wooden statuette, but how important to us is our social media status? Or the praise of those around me. Do you care about those things more than you care about who you are in God? If you are not sure, compare your average daily screen time with the time you spent reading the Bible this morning, Who do you draw your value from? You contemporaries or your heavenly Father? Do you worship the desire to be liked by others, or do you worship the One who created you, formed you and loves you?

Just like the ancient statues of stone or gold, our present-day idols only hold power if we give it to them. If we lean on them for favour, love, or fortune, we will surely only discover empty and lifeless promises.

But worship the Living God and bow the knee to Him and a whole universe of possibilities open up. Because… what god can possibly be as great as our God?

“Trust in the LORD with all your heart

and lean not on your own understanding;

in all your ways submit to him,

and he will make your paths straight” (Prov 3:5-6).

Sometimes when I am finding it hard to find a place of peace and trust, it is because I have started to imagine all sorts of possible scenarios that might play out. I see in my minds eye all the worst things that can happen. All the unpleasant conversations that might take place.

In this 3-part devotion series, we have examined what it might mean to trust in the Lord with all your heart. We have suggested that a conscious focus on the attributes of God that particularly speak to the human heart can help us as we navigate life’s challenges. For example, if we remind ourselves that God is kind and God is faithful, we might more easily find the peace that we need because we know He will be faithful and kind towards us.

And if we avoid the temptation to link our faith with what we think we know about a person or what we might believe about a situation, we can instead rest in the truth that God sees and understands all things, and so we can trust Him.

The third line of this proverb simply tells us to submit to Him. In all our ways. This sounds to me like a reminder to declare that He is Lord. The Scriptures constantly tell us that the Lord is on His throne and that Jesus reigns at the right hand of the Father. He is sovereign, no-one is higher than Him. But sometimes we need to consciously submit all of our decisions, all of our problems, all of our comings and goings to His Lordship.

Regardless of how we may want a situation to play out, we must come to a place where we can say, “Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven”. Lord, you are a kind and good God and your have your perfect will. You have greater knowledge than me. While I sometimes base decisions on my assumptions, you see the actual truth. So, I submit my ways to you.

With these instructions in place that Lord promises He will make our paths straight. What does this mean? As we said in the first devotion in this series, a straight path implies that we won’t be zigzagging all over the shop trying to find peace or struggling to make sense of a situation.

A straight path will have no turns trying to distract us from our destination – a life of fruitfulness and purpose under the guiding hand of God.

“Trust in the LORD with all your heart

and lean not on your own understanding;

in all your ways submit to him,

and he will make your paths straight” (Prov 3:5-6).