I AM WHO I AM

Read

Exodus 3:13-15 "Moses said to God, 'Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they ask me, 'What is his name?' Then what shall I tell them?' God said to Moses, 'I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: 'I AM has sent me to you.'' God also said to Moses, 'Say to the Israelites, 'The LORD, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.' 'This is my name forever, the name you shall call me from generation to generation.''"

Think

My dad told me something when I was young that I have never been able to shake. He said, "If you can do anything else other than become a pastor, do that." He was not trying to discourage me. He knew exactly what he was doing. He was testing the call. Because my dad understood that a true calling is not something you choose. It is something that chooses you. And if you can walk away from it, it was never yours to begin with.

That advice sat in the back of my mind for years. It was there when I was playing basketball at Florida State on a scholarship, loving every minute of it. It was there when I walked into my coach's office and told him I was done. I was giving up the scholarship. I was leaving to go into ministry. My coach looked at me like I had lost my mind. But my dad's words were ringing in my ears: if you can do anything else, do that. I could not do anything else. The calling would not let me go.

That kind of clarity is exactly what Moses needed in Exodus 3. God had just told him to go back to Egypt and confront the most powerful ruler in the world. Moses' first question was about his own identity: "Who am I?" God answered that one. But Moses had a second question, and it went even deeper. He said, "Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they ask me, 'What is his name?' Then what shall I tell them?"

Moses was not asking for a label. He was asking for authority. He was saying, "If I am going to stand in front of millions of enslaved people and tell them that God sent me, I need to know who I am representing. I need to know who you are."

And God gave him the most extraordinary answer in all of Scripture: "I AM WHO I AM."

Not "I was." Not "I will be." I AM. Present tense. Eternal. Self-existent. Not defined by anything outside of himself. Not dependent on any condition. Not shaped by any circumstance. God is not becoming something. He is not evolving. He is not in process. He simply is. Always has been, always will be, unchanging and unshakeable.

In a conversation full of uncertainty, God drops an anchor. And the anchor is not a promise or a plan or a strategy. It is a name. His name. The one name that cannot be shaken because it does not depend on anything outside of itself. Every other identity in Moses' life had crumbled. Prince. Fugitive. Shepherd. But I AM does not crumble.

"This is what you are to say to the Israelites: 'I AM has sent me to you.'"

I have thought about those words more than almost any other phrase in the Bible. Because in a world where everything shifts, where relationships break, where markets crash, where diagnoses come out of nowhere, where the ground beneath your feet never seems solid, God introduces himself as the one thing that never changes. I AM. I am here. I am steady. I am not going anywhere. Every other name in your life will eventually let you down. Every title will expire. Every relationship will face a test. But I AM does not waver.

When you know who God is, it settles who you are. That is the connection. Moses' first question was "Who am I?" and God answered with his presence. Moses' second question was "Who are you?" and God answered with his name. And once Moses had both answers, he had everything he needed to walk into Pharaoh's court. Not because Moses was enough. Because I AM was sending him.

Here is what I have noticed over the years. The people who struggle most with their calling are usually the people who have not settled who God is. They are trying to figure out their purpose, their direction, their next step, without first anchoring themselves in the character of the One who is calling them. But when you know that the God who calls you is the same yesterday, today, and forever, when you know that his name is I AM and not I MIGHT BE, it gives you a confidence that has nothing to do with your own ability.

I could not be anything I wanted to be. I was a decent basketball player, but I was never going to the NBA. I was an average student who struggled with attention issues my whole academic life. But I could be everything God called me to be. Because the calling was never about me. It was about I AM.

When I walked out of my coach's office at Florida State, I did not have a plan. I did not have a seminary acceptance letter in my pocket. I did not have a church lined up. All I had was a name. I AM has sent me. And that was enough. It has been enough for over thirty years, and it will be enough for whatever comes next.

Apply

Anchor in the name – Write out "I AM WHO I AM" and put it somewhere you will see it this week. When anxiety or uncertainty rises, come back to those five words and remind yourself who is sending you.

Pray

Lord, you are I AM. You do not change. You are not uncertain. You are the same God who called Moses, and you are the same God calling me today. Forgive me for trying to figure out who I am before settling who you are. I anchor my identity in your name. I trust that if you are sending me, that is enough. In Jesus' name. Amen.