"Run Away, Run Away!"

Some days I just want to run away.  Probably more days than I'd care to admit.  I  sort of feel a bit like Jonah I suppose.  God gives me something to do and I feel like I can't measure up to the task for so many reasons.  I want to board a ship and sail away to some far off land where nobody can find me.  Or, perhaps at times I feel a little like Moses when the Lord told him to go to Pharaoh and speak.  Like Moses, I say, "Who me, Lord, I can't speak.  Can't you send somebody else?"  I think of Jeremiah who was afraid of what others might think and who felt so inexperienced and unqualified for the work the Lord had called him to. 

Even the great apostle, Paul, knew weakness in his flesh and said, "And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God.  For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.  I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling.  And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God."  
(1 Corinthians 2:1-5)

Words from Scripture echo in my mind, that God uses the weak and the foolish to confound the wise, and, He will give me what I need in the hour I need to speak and that if I open my mouth He will fill it.

I still battle with fear at times and struggle with my many inadequacies.  But I continue to press into the Lord who causes me to overcome that I may accomplish His purposes as I rely on His grace and faithfulness to give me whatever I need to do His will.

Timothy struggled with fear, timidity and feelings of inadequacy as well.  But God did not give him, or you, or me a spirit of fear but of power, and of love and of a sound mind.  I pray that we would continually stir up the giftings the Lord has placed within us and step out in faith, even when we're afraid, to do the "greater" works that He has promised.  For now is the time!

Scripture Meditation:
Jonah 1:1-3 - Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying,  “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before Me.”  But Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa, and found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid the fare, and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.
Jonah 3:1-3 -  Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying,  “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach to it the message that I tell you.”  So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord.
Exodus 4:10-13 - Then Moses said to the Lord, “O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither before nor since You have spoken to Your servant; but I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.”  So the Lord said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Or who makes the mute, the deaf, the seeing, or the blind? Have not I, the Lord?  Now therefore, go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall say.”  But he said, “O my Lord, please send by the hand of whomever else You may send.”
Jeremiah 1:4-10 - Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying:  “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; before you were born I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations.”   Then said I: “Ah, Lord God!  Behold, I cannot speak, for I am a youth.”  But the Lord said to me: “Do not say, ‘I am a youth,’ for you shall go to all to whom I send you, and whatever I command you, you shall speak.  Do not be afraid of their faces, for I am with you to deliver you,” says the Lord.  Then the Lord put forth His hand and touched my mouth, and the Lord said to me: “Behold, I have put My words in your mouth.  See, I have this day set you over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out and to pull down, to destroy and to throw down, to build and to plant.”
1 Corinthians 1:26-31 - For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called.  But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence.  But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God—and righteousness and sanctification and redemption— that, as it is written, “He who glories, let him glory in the Lord.”
Matthew 10:19-20 - ...For it will be given to you in that hour what you should speak; for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you.
Psalm 81:10 - ... open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.
2 Timothy 1:6-7 -  Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands.  For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.
John 14:12 -  “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to 
My Father. "