This devotional was written by Evangelist Wil Rice. You may subscribe to his free email devotionals and read past devotionals at First Light Devotionals Bill Rice Ranch.
Does God ever ask you to do something you cannot do? Well, Pharaoh surely did. Pharaoh asked the children of Israel to make bricks without straw. He asked them to do as much work, if not more, with even fewer resources. Does God ever do that? Does God ever ask you to do something you cannot do? Well, an easy answer would be to say, *No, God will never ask you to do something you cannot do.* Yet, an honest look through the Bible gives us many illustrations of people who responded in obedience to God*s telling them to do something they could not do.
One such example is found in Exodus 3 where God told Moses to go stand before the most powerful man in the world, Pharaoh, and tell him to let the people of Israel go. Verse 11 says, *And Moses said unto God, Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt* That was a valid question. Moses said, *God you are telling me to do something. Who am I? Why are you asking me?* Now, there is a difference between asking, *Who am I?* and asking, *Who is the Lord?*
In Exodus 5:2 Pharaoh dismissively says, *Hey, who is the Lord that I should let the people of Israel go? I don*t know Him. I don*t acknowledge Him.* Moses on the other hand said, *God, who am I?* God answered both Pharaoh*s and Moses* question with the same mighty works, but it was a lot harder on Pharaoh who questioned God than on Moses who questioned himself. There is a difference between questioning who I am and questioning Who the Lord is.
It is interesting to note that God never answered Moses* question. Numerous times in the following verses God said, *Moses, I will. I am. I will.* God never answered Moses* question because it was beside the point. Moses was nobody, and that is perhaps one of the reasons that God commissioned him. God in essence said, *Moses, your part is to obey. My part is to enable.* So, God will frequently ask you to do things you cannot do, but God will never ask you to do something that He cannot do.
There is a difference between can and should. Should does things that can never could. If you are constantly asking yourself, *Can I do this?* you will never do half the things you should do, but if you ask yourself, *Should I do this?* that will lead you to depend upon the God Who is giving you guidance and everything you need to do what you cannot do.
When you do what you should, God will do what only He can. God never says to anyone in the Bible, *Hey, you can do it! You think you can*t do it, but you can do it.* God never does that! Rather He says, *I am with you.* Moses* question belied a truth. Moses was incapable, but God is capable. God said, *I will be with you, and I will be with your mouth.* Friend, God will be with you today. God will never ask you to do anything that He cannot do.