RIGHT REASON, WRONG RESULT

Acts 7:20-29 "At that time Moses was born, and he was no ordinary child. For three months he was cared for in his father's house. When he was placed outside, Pharaoh's daughter took him and brought him up as her own son. Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in speech and action. When Moses was forty years old, he decided to visit his fellow Israelites. He saw one of them being mistreated by an Egyptian, so he went to his defense and avenged him by killing the Egyptian. Moses thought that his own people would realize that God was using him to rescue them, but they did not. The next day Moses came upon two Israelites who were fighting. He tried to reconcile them by saying, 'Men, you are brothers; why do you want to hurt each other?' But the man who was mistreating the other pushed Moses aside and said, 'Who made you ruler and judge over us? Do you want to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?' When Moses heard this, he fled to Midian, where he settled as a foreigner and had two sons."

Stephen now begins to recite the familiar story of Moses. Previously, Stephen had recounted the history of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph -- the purpose -- to illustrate that God does not live in a place. The secondary point Stephen is making is how the Jews have a history of rejecting their savior: first Joseph -- who was sold by his brothers into slavery; now Moses -- who (in this passage) was "just trying to help."

Many times, like Moses, we have the right intent, but do the wrong thing. Moses knew God had a special purpose for him -- to save His people. The only problem was he did it his way not God's way. We can get ourselves in trouble like this as well. We see a problem, but rather than rely on God's timing and wisdom, we throw ourselves into the situation -- maybe even doing something we consider heroic (at great personal risk) -- only to be misunderstood, criticized and condemned. What was Moses' solution? Run away from Egypt.

This is great story (perhaps one we can relate to). Here was a guy who was spared by God; raised and educated in Pharaoh's household by Pharaoh's daughter -- as her son; then gets in trouble and runs for the hills. We don't know every event in Moses life up to this point, but I find it interesting that he would completely quit on life -- because of one mistake. Yet we can find ourselves doing the same thing. We mess up at work, in a ministry, a witness opportunity, or display a poor example to someone -- and we give up on our value. We think we've blown it and we can't or won't be used again. Are you ever guilty of this kind of thinking?

Have you ever blown it when trying to serve God? What were the circumstances? Did you get back into His service or "run for the hills"? What would it take to get you to try again? What would you do differently?

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