The Lord God has a plan for each one of his people. His plan includes missions to carry out and responsibilities to fill. He does not have the exact same plan for everyone. When God issues marching orders, they correspond to the gifts he has given to the individual, and the work that he wants to accomplish through that person.

To the question, “Who am I?” the answer must be given: “A creation of the holy God, assigned to this place and time to carry out his work and bring glory to his name.”

Any other answer is presumptuous—and wrong. We are only kidding ourselves if we think we exist apart from the will of God and are on earth to do only what we choose. Sooner or later that illusion will fade like fog before the bright sun.

This doesn’t mean we don’t have choices. The Lord gives us a great degree of freedom. We might pick a career preference. We may choose to become married—or not.

What we cannot do is choose to ignore his orders. A summary of them is in the Ten Commandments. In addition, specific orders also come to specific people.

Moses was ordered to personally go to Pharaoh to announce that the Israelites would leave Egypt. Moses was assigned the task of being the leader of the exodus. His response was, “Who am I?” He was saying he was not equal to the task. He was offering an excuse.

God countered the excuse with the words: “I certainly will be with you.” He backed up the words of assurance by giving Moses a glimpse of the future. After the successful exodus, Moses would return to this very spot to worship his Lord and God. Moses had no excuse. Neither do we.

One of the greatest missions we can receive is to be a parent, and thus responsible for the protection, nurture, and development of someone’s early life. Both parents, whether their children are naturally born to them or adopted, are charged with the task of being faithful to their assignment. It is not an easy job. It is tempting to say, “Who am I?” and at times offer the excuse that this is beyond our ability. That excuse will not be accepted.

On Father’s Day we especially think of the grave responsibility that is assigned to fathers as head of the family. If our grandfathers thought it was difficult to carry out that assignment years ago, how much more difficult is it in the world of today?

But difficulty is no excuse. Neither are personal inadequacies. As he said to Moses, so our God says to us: “I will certainly be with you.”

We have no excuse. What we do have is a promise!

That promise is backed by blood—holy blood. The Son of God left the glory of heaven to be with us mortals. He did not abandon us to the fate we deserved or the satanic powers of darkness. He will not abandon us when we take on tasks he has assigned to us—as difficult as they may be.

“I will certainly be with you.” he says.

He is not against us. He is not away from us. He is with us.

He is there to bless us—and to bless others through us.