Exodus Complex

I lead a Bible Study for a group of college freshmen at IU with my friend Timbo (no, he isn't foreign, His real name is Timothy). God has blessed us with some of the most absurd, rambunctious and loving group of men I’ve ever met in my life. They love Jesus and their love for Him and each other is addicting. I feel like half of the things God has been teaching me lately have come from these men.

The specific lesson that I want to share today started a few months ago. Tim and I were trying to figure out how we could challenge our study to active ministry on the campus. We had talked a big talk in study about going out and "making disciples" but up to this point we had been relatively inactive. To be honest, we really hadn't done anything but talk.

One night after study I received a text from one of the guys in the study. All it said was “What are you doing now that requires faith?” With this simple sentence, my world was rocked. What had I been doing that showed absolute trust in God? Had I taken any chance that I couldn’t get accomplished by my own talents and abilities? Had I gotten so comfortable in my own way that I failed to see how and where God wanted to move?

The truth is I have seen God work in some amazing ways in my life. I have seen myself turned from a teenager who would stop at nothing to be loved and accepted by others to a man who desires to be loved by and love God and his people. I have seen countless lives changed and I experience God’s greatness and the truth of His promise every day, yet I continually limit God with how far he can take me. He has shown Himself faithful, yet I lack faith that He can take me any farther than my own ability will allow.

I call this little dilemma of mine the Exodus Complex. This problem is not my own, in fact the Bible is full of situations where God proves Himself faithful to His people but they continue to doubt that He can take them the rest of the way. In Exodus and Deuteronomy we see God bring the Israelites out of Egypt, but when He showed them the land He had promised them they decided that it was just too impossible, even for God.

In Deuteronomy chapter 1 Moses addresses his people about their unbelief in a way that hits very close to home for me:

“ 29 Then I said to you, "Do not be terrified; do not be afraid of them. 30 The LORD your God, who is going before you, will fight for you, as he did for you in Egypt, before your very eyes, 31 and in the desert. There you saw how the LORD your God carried you, as a father carries his son, all the way you went until you reached this place." 32 In spite of this, you did not trust in the LORD your God, 33 who went ahead of you on your journey, in fire by night and in a cloud by day, to search out places for you to camp and to show you the way you should go.” Deuteronomy 1:26-33 (New International Version).

Like the Israelites I can hear God calling me to something huge, but I am often paralyzed by my lack of faith. Not only does He want to take us to places beyond our wildest dreams, but He goes before us and fights for us. It doesn't mean that the journey wont be hard, but it does mean that we have a God who is on our side. If He has called us to something that will bring Him glory, He is faithful and will not leave us to fight on our own. God will carry us "as a father carries his son".
The question is this:
Are we willing to trust God and allow Him to take us father than our abilities and short-sightedness ever could?
This will require us to actually start doing things that involve taking steps of faith instead of just doing enough to be called 'Christian'.

“What are you doing now that requires faith?”