There is a big difference between acting in your strength, according to your plans and acting in God’s power, according to God’s plans.

Think of Moses and two very different burials that happened in his life.

Remember when he killed an Egyptian who was attacking a Hebrew?

Now it came about in those days, when Moses had grown up, that he went out to his brethren and looked on their hard labors; and he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his brethren. So he looked this way and that, and when he saw there was no one around, he struck down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand (Exod 2:11-12).

Moses buried the corpse in the sand. But he didn’t do a very good job of hiding the body! Someone found it, word got around, and instead of being considered a hero, Moses was rejected as a liability:

But he said, “Who made you a prince or a judge over us? Are you intending to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid and said, “Surely the matter has become known” (Exod 2:14).

The secret was out and Moses fled for his life!

It took forty years before Moses was ready to return. It took forty years to learn to depend upon God. And when Moses did return to Egypt, he was painfully aware of his own inadequacies (Exod 4:13). But what a difference that dependence made! Instead of acting out of his plans and his strength, Moses acted on the authority of God, and the results were completely different, as illustrated by another burial.

Moses led the Hebrews out of Egypt. When Pharaoh pursued them to the Red Sea do you remember what happened?

God buried them all. In water.

And when God did it, the bodies stayed buried!

As Major Ian Thomas remarked:

“When Moses tried to tackle the job, he could not even bury one Egyptian successfully. Maybe he left his toes sticking out of the sand! When God tackled the job, He buried the whole lot of them in the Red Sea! That is how competent God is to deal with His own business” (The Saving Life of Christ, 64).

Do you believe God is competent to deal with His own business?

Will you depend on Him today, relating every moment, problem, and action to Him, in prayer?