Moses answered, "What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, 'The LORD did not appear to you'?" Then the LORD said to him, "What is that in your hand?" "A staff," he replied. The LORD said, "Throw it on the ground." Moses threw it on the ground and it became a snake, and he ran from it. Then the LORD said to him, "Reach out your hand and take it by the tail." So Moses reached out and took hold of the snake and it turned back into a staff in his hand. "This," said the LORD, "is so that they may believe that the LORD, the God of their fathers-the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob-has appeared to you." Then the LORD said, "Put your hand inside your cloak." So Moses put his hand into his cloak, and when he took it out, the skin was leprous-it had become as white as snow. "Now put it back into your cloak," he said. So Moses put his hand back into his cloak, and when he took it out, it was restored, like the rest of his flesh. Then the LORD said, "If they do not believe you or pay attention to the first sign, they may believe the second. But if they do not believe these two signs or listen to you, take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground. The water you take from the river will become blood on the ground."

Exodus 4:1-9 NIV

The most important part of the text is the grace that God extends to Moses. God is patient in spite of all of Moses’ objections. He responds to Moses and assures him of both Moses’ innate capability and God’s divine ability to complete what He is announcing.

It is amazing that God is willing to wait on us to catch our faith up to His promises. Not only will He wait on us, but He does so without letting His promises expire or His love wane. Even when Moses is being held back by “what-ifs,” God perseveres with Moses.

Each one of us knows what it feels like to be inspired by what God says He wants to do in and through our lives but then be held back by hypotheticals. Shaking off the “what-ifs” is one of the hardest things to do. For Moses, he not only wondered if the Israelites would believe him, but He also wondered what he would do if it worked? How would he be able to lead them out of Egypt?

For us, comfortable is better than adventurous. Manageable is better than miraculous. We have been hindered and hampered by so many “what-ifs” that we don’t even consider it abnormal anymore.

But God didn’t want Moses held back by “what-ifs,” and He doesn’t want us to be held back either. God wants us to walk in faith, trusting in Him and being courageous to do what God wants us to do. Oftentimes, this means that we have to walk in the dark.

Sometimes God’s plan for our lives requires that we walk in the dark by faith. We won’t know how or if everything will work out, but we will have to trust Him and obey. When God knows that the chains of hypotheticals have wrapped themselves around us, He will give us confirmation to keep us going.

We have to learn to thank God not only in easy, comfortable times, but also as we walk in the confusion and the darkness. When we get confirmations along the way, we need to take the time to turn our attention back to God and give Him thanks that He is bringing His plans for us to completion.