LET’S CHANGE IT FROM "MAKING EXCUSES" TO…

One of the things that is certain to stifle our personal growth and development is when we make excuses. Whenever we cloud our future or alleviate the burden of irresponsibility with excuses we are doing far more than, well, making excuses. We are distorting the image of God within us. Let me explain with a familiar story in scripture.

The Call of Moses

Whatever we may not know of the story and life of Moses as the leader of Israel a majority of church goers are familiar with his calling from the Lord. In particular, the many excuses Moses gave the Lord as to why he was not the man for the job of leading the nation Israel. He gave excuse after excuse! Read this first instance from Exodus 3:10-12

10 Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of

Egypt.” 11 But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children

of Israel out of Egypt?” 12 He said, “But I will be with you, and this shall be the sign for you,

that I have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this

mountain.”

Notice three quick realities:

1. God called Moses to a task - a future; a goal (verse 10)

2. Moses gave an excuse masked as an innocent question (verse 11)

3. God promised His presence to Moses to achieve the task (verse 12)

Now, notice that the calling is from the Lord and, after the Lord spoke to Moses all Moses could see is himself and his inabilities to do what God called him to do. Ponder that for a minute. God speaks to Moses, literally and all Moses can focus on after hearing from the Creator of the universe, are his inabilities.

Now, before we get on our brother Moses consider this even more amazing reality: The Lord who spoke to Moses now resides within us and yet, for some of us, all we can see are our inabilities. Thank God for grace! Lord, help us! In all of this excuse making, the Lord graciously pointed Moses (and us) away from his (and our) inabilities to Himself and His ability.

What is the point of this?

What I saw in this exchange between God and Moses was the Lord teaching us through it that, when we make excuses we are doing something deeply more disturbing. We are not making excuses we are Masking Eternity! Every time Moses made an excuse he was actually masking the eternity God had placed within his heart to be expressed through him to the people of Israel. Yes, he saw it only as giving reasons for why he was incapable, but in truth, He was actually hindering what God wanted to do in and through him.

Yes, Moses was not sufficient, in himself, to achieve what God had for him. You are I are not sufficient to achieve what God has for us on our own, but God is! Therefore, when we “make excuses” we are actually Masking Eternity and in doing so we actively hinder or block God’s work in and through us. In fact, when we make excuses for not showing up for worship, Bible Study, prayer meeting etc., think about it this way: by doing so you are masking eternity. You are missing out on the aspect of eternity that the Lord has for you in those moments that we made excuses to miss. Please understand that when we miss worship, Bible study, prayer we are not missing events or programs. We are missing the expression of eternity in the realm of humanity.

· When we miss church, we missed the Word God had planned for us that Sunday. We missed it.

It's gone! Think about the many challenges you have that could have been changed through the

sermon you missed because you made excuses for missing worship and, therefore, masked

eternity.

· When we miss prayer, we miss the move of eternity in that moment - that special moment when

the body gathered to pray. Think about how we missed the many blessings and joys of answered

prayer from others and in your own life because we made excuses to skip prayer and, therefore,

masked eternity.

· When we fail to spend time in the Word, daily, think about what God would have spoken to us

about this or that problem, issue, etc., but how it remains a problem because we made excuses for

not reading and, therefore, masked eternity.

Here is my encouragement to all of us: let's not call it making excuses. Let's call it what it really is Masked Eternity. So, whatever the Lord has called us to let's trust Him not our abilities. By doing so I think we will increasingly see excuse making as the hinderance (dare I say, "the sin") that it is in keeping us from hearing from and seeing God at work in and through our lives.

2021 is the year of fighting against and eliminate Masking Eternity.