Personal Growth For Christian Living

3 And Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt.

4 And when the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I.

5 And he said, Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground. KJV

Note that it was not when Moses was a prince in Egypt that God called him to do the job he was called to do. It was after the loss of all he had while along on the backside of the desert that he met God and received his commission. As prince of Egypt, he may have relied on his assets and influence to bring about the will of God. That would have been in his strength. God broke him and blessed him even in the desert, but the mission would now have to be carried out in the power of God and Moses' complete reliance upon that power. Without that period of seclusion there would have been no Exodus, no pillar and cloud or parting of the Red Sea. Well, at least with Moses being the leader it would not have happened.

1 Samuel 3:3-10

3 And ere the lamp of God went out in the temple of the LORD, where the ark of God was, and Samuel was laid down to sleep;

4 That the LORD called Samuel: and he answered, Here am I.

5 And he ran unto Eli, and said, Here am I; for thou calledst me. And he said, I called not; lie down again. And he went and lay down.

6 And the LORD called yet again, Samuel. And Samuel arose and went to Eli, and said, Here am I; for thou didst call me. And he answered, I called not, my son; lie down again.

7 Now Samuel did not yet know the LORD, neither was the word of the LORD yet revealed unto him.

8 And the LORD called Samuel again the third time. And he arose and went to Eli, and said, Here am I; for thou didst call me. And Eli perceived that the LORD had called the child.

9 Therefore Eli said unto Samuel, Go, lie down: and it shall be, if he call thee, that thou shalt say, Speak, LORD; for thy servant heareth. So Samuel went and lay down in his place.

10 And the LORD came, and stood, and called as at other times, Samuel, Samuel. Then Samuel answered, Speak; for thy servant heareth. KJV

Even a child needs such periods of seclusion and because a child's life can be disorganized and chaotic it may be the only time God can speak to him is when he is upon his bed. It might not be wise to rush a child off to bed and demand he be asleep as soon as possible. Let him lie there for in that time before sleep God may speak to him. Also, it would be wise if we would retire before we are ready to collapse so that as we lie there God may also speak to us. O, that we would be as ready to get off our bed to heed His call as Samuel was and that we would know it was Him that was calling us.

Too many times we awake in the middle of the night or we cannot fall off to sleep because God wants us to say, “Speak, Lord for thy servant heareth.” We will not know until Glory how many moments of joy we have missed and how many tidbits of wisdom He sought impart to us in those times or what results our prayers would have had if we had fought the flesh and allowed our spirit to be moved by the Spirit of God. I often wrote my best papers for college after everyone else went to bed and burned some midnight oil. It may also be the best time to receive the oil of gladness from God if we would only allow Him to anoint us with it. How much more would we have been fruitful because of our time with Him when it was inconvenient to the flesh? God sought to be alone with us and we would not.