God’s Not Done With You: Encouragement From the Bible's Greatest Comeback StoriesSample

Day 1: Moses

Most of us know who Moses is, but did you know his life is told in three seasons? Just about everyone knows about Season 1, when he is put in a wicker basket on the Nile and rescued by Pharaoh's daughter.

Most of us know about Season 3, when God uses Moses to set the Israelites free.

But are you aware of Season 2? This is what I call the 40-year dark season of Moses’ life, when he is on the backside of the desert. He has committed murder in an angry retaliation for the mistreatment of his people but has to run for his life.

“But Moses fled from Pharaoh and stayed in the land of Midian. And he sat down by a well.” (Exodus 2:15, ESV)

Overcome with regret and sorrow, Moses is wandering alone. He remembers that God rescued him as an infant, and he recalls favor from the Lord, but now I think he’s too discouraged and regretful to see what God has next. Eventually, Moses lands in a place where no one else can find him.

But God knows where he is. And God knows how to get his attention.

There’s a bigger picture going on in Moses’ life that he’s completely unaware of. What if he, and we, could see that every dark season has a redemptive aspect to it through which God is going to use what we don’t think he can use?

That’s what the burning bush is all about. God is getting Moses’ attention, and he’s going to give him a new assignment.

“The angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of the bush.” (Exodus 3:2, ESV)

What God teaches Moses, he yearns to teach us, but we have to give him our attention. And Moses does that right—you must read it for yourself in Exodus 3.

Allow me to urge you to have a new encounter with God and allow him to speak into your future—no matter what your past is like. Don’t look for a burning bush—look for his written words in the Bible. Don’t wait for the backside of the desert. Open your heart and mind to him now.