Join us this Sunday! In-Person 9:00am & 10:45am, Online 9:00am, 10:45am & 5:00pm

Join us this Sunday! In-Person 9:00am & 10:45am, Online 9:00am, 10:45am & 5:00pm

Join us at the next Sunday worship service:
In-Person
9:00am & 10:45am,
Online 9:00am, 10:45am & 5:00pm

Attention Getter

“One day Moses was tending the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro,the priest of Midian. He led the flock far into the wilderness and came to Sinai, the mountain of God. There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a blazing fire from the middle of a bush. Moses stared in amazement. Though the bush was engulfed in flames, it didn’t burn up. “This is amazing,” Moses said to himself. “Why isn’t that bush burning up? I must go see it.” Exodus 3:1-3.

Today people use social media to grab people’s attention. God used a more dramatic approach with Moses. God got Moses’ attention when he was living in Midian as a shepherd, far removed from the splendor and glory he had known in Egypt. For 40 years, he had lived this humble existence of tending the flocks, looking forward to the ease and comfort of retirement. No one had bothered him, not even God. Then one day, Moses got a wake-up call. He saw a bush burning, but it wasn’t so much that the bush was burning, it was that the bush did not burn up. God had his attention.

What can we learn from Moses’ experience? The obvious answer is when God appears, we need to give Him our undivided attention. But is that it?  Verse 4 continues the story: “When the Lord saw Moses coming to take a closer look, God called to him from the middle of the bush, “Moses! Moses!” “Here I am!” Moses replied.

Did you catch that? Only when Moses took the time to investigate the improbable scene in front of him, and only when God saw that Moses was paying attention, did God call him over. Curiosity got the better of him and he was now paying attention; that attention changed Moses’s life and the fate of the nation of Israel.

It begs the question: what burning bushes in your life should you be paying more attention to?  Is God doing something near you that is strange, exciting, dangerous, or unknown? Is God trying to get your attention? It may be the moment God uses to start something amazing in your life. Craig Groeschel said that “God doesn’t have to shout to grab your attention. He whispers to draw you close. He is right there with you.” 

God wants your attention for a reason. In the case of Moses, God had seen the misery of His people in Egypt. He wanted someone to request their release from Pharaoh. He wanted someone who knew Egyptian culture, language, policy, law and mindset. Who was better to handle that task than Moses? God got Moses’ attention to call him into service to lead the children of Israel out of slavery and into the Promised Land.

God gets our attention because He has something He wants us to do. He always calls us to action. What would God have you to do? 

Discussion Questions:

  1. Is it possible to know when God is trying to get our attention? If so, how?
  2. How can we be more receptive this week to God speaking to you? 

<PREVIOUS

NEXT >