Moses returned to the Lord and said, “Why, Lord, why have you brought trouble on this people? Is this why you sent me? Ever since I went to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has brought trouble on this people, and you have not rescued your people at all.”

- Exodus 5:22-23

In today’s passage, Moses finally did the right thing in the right way and at the right time. He did exactly what God told him to do in the way God told him to do it at the time God told him to do it.

What would you expect if you were in Moses sandals? Surely, not this.

Pharaoh rejected Moses’ request. The workload on the Israelite slaves increased dramatically. The people started to grumble against Moses. His first act as their representative backfired tremendously. He was just getting started and he’d already failed!

Have you ever experienced this?

You do what you think God wants you to do and it doesn’t go the way you expected. You do something the way you think God wants it done and it doesn’t seem to work. You move in what seems to you to be God’s timing and the doors just don’t seem to be opening.

We each respond to these experiences a little differently.

Some of us will throw our hands up and assume we made a mistake. “It can’t be God’s will if it’s hard,” we say. “God’s supposed to be lining everything up for me and opening the doors for me—he’s supposed to be making this easy if it’s what he wants me to do!”

Others of us will grit our teeth and try to plow through, even reveling in the fact that if it’s hard it MUST be God’s will for me: “It smells bad, tastes bad, looks bad … I don’t like it. It must be good for me.” This is what Elizabeth Eliot jokingly called “The Negative Will of God Theory.” These folks only feel confident they’re doing God’s work if there’s some degree of difficulty to it.

But Moses doesn’t do either of these things. He doesn’t throw his hands up and he doesn’t grit his teeth. Instead, he turns and returns to God. He checks with God. And God gives him the confidence to persevere.

Where are you hitting roadblocks and obstacles in your life? Where are you tempted to either throw up your hands or to grit your teeth? What would it look like if, instead, you circled back to God to check your course?

What if today you carved out 5 minutes with this passage and a journal or notebook and prayerfully listed your obstacles, confess how you’re prone to either quit or plow through, and then ask the Lord to either confirm his calling on this direction you’re attempting or re-direct your path?