I Am Who I Am - The One Year Book of Hope

I Am Who I Am

God replied, “I AM THE ONE WHO ALWAYS IS. Just tell them, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’ ” –Exodus 3:14

I have memories of mistakes I’ve made that cause me to flinch when I remember. I work hard to keep my mind from going there because of the pain of regret. I wonder if that’s how Moses felt when God called to him from the burning bush, telling him to go back to Egypt. He’d spent forty years forgetting, or at least trying to forget, his failed effort to save the Hebrew people—an outburst of violence that had resulted in murder. A death warrant was still on his head in Egypt, and that’s where God told him to go. He may have been successful in putting the pain of Egypt behind him until God called, but now his pain seemed like a worthy excuse to avoid God’s unwanted instructions. Perhaps flinching as he remembered the ridicule and rejection of the Hebrew slaves who had witnessed his crime, Moses responded to God by asking, “Who am I?” (Exodus 3:11). In Moses’ mind, he was a washed-up former royal, a murderer, a sheepherder, and a nobody—definitely not a deliverer.

God responded not by answering Moses’ question, but simply by letting Moses know who God is: I AM. Moses had made the mistake of believing that his success as a deliverer would be about him—his abilities, his credentials, his reputation. But God was saying to Moses, I am eternally everything you need. This is about me, not you. I AM is your resource for facing a regret-ridden past. I AM is your reserve to keep facing the day when the day is hard. I AM is the answer to your immobilizing fear about where your future will take you. I AM is your authority for demanding deliverance from what has enslaved you and those you love.

Is God asking you to face something painful from your past? Is he asking you to go somewhere you don’t want to go, to do something you believe is beyond your ability and credibility? If so, God offers you what he offered to Moses: himself, I AM. God says to you, I AM a Redeemer who has orchestrated every aspect of your life to prepare you to serve others. I AM with you wherever you go, leading and guiding you. I AM the One who will enable you to do what I’ve called you to do. I AM everything you need.

Great I AM, my Deliverer, this is holy ground because you are here offering me the vast resources that are so much a part of you that even your name reflects them. I receive you. I will obey you.

DIGGING DEEPER