Christian Imposter Syndrome: 3 Reasons You Feel Unqualified—and What God Says Instead

In Exodus 2–4, we look at Moses’ story and explore three shame-based excuses we make that lead to condemnation and stagnation rather than acting by faith.

Moses has a complicated backstory. First off, he was born a Hebrew in a time period of mass genocide. The Pharaoh ordered all newly born Hebrew boys be killed. However, Moses’ mother put him in a basket and sent him down the river. In addition to evading any sort of river-dwelling monster, Moses is found by Pharaoh’s daughter. Surely, Moses would be killed, right? Wrong. Well, at least he would be enslaved like all the rest of the Hebrew people then, right? Wrong again. Moses, a Hebrew boy who should have been killed or enslaved, was taken in by the Pharaoh’s daughter and he grew up in the Pharaoh’s house.

What a weird situation to be born into. It had to be hard watching your people get beaten by the hands of Egyptians. It had to be even harder to get fed luxuriously in the palace by those same hands. All of this was hard on Moses.

One day, Moses went out to visit his own people. He saw how hard they were forced to work and how brutally they were treated. He had a desire to see them free and treated justly, so this infuriated him. It infuriated him so much that he acted rashly and killed the Egyptian who was harshly supervising the Hebrews, and then he buried the body.

The next day, someone called him out on it, and then it hit him—shame. What did he do? He ran away to the land of Midian, and he hid for 40 years. You probably know the story. In the next chapter of Exodus, God chases down Moses in Midian and calls him to lead the people out from Egyptian slavery. However, Moses’ shame led to condemnation. And since he is under condemnation, he is having a hard time acting on what God is asking. Instead, he makes excuses for why he isn’t good enough.

The Root of the Excuse

Before making his three excuses in Exodus 4, Moses and God have a little argument in Exodus 3. God tells Moses that he is called to lead the Israelites out of slavery. Moses didn’t think he was the type of person God should use. After 40 years of hiding, he still has a shameful view of himself. How do I know? Because in Exodus 3:11 Moses protests by saying to God, “Who am I to do this?”

Don’t miss this important point. Moses tried to waste the wait. He spent 40 years hiding and apparently wanted to keep hiding. Why? Because he couldn’t get past who he was. It all tied back to his shame. Moses was letting the lowest moment of his life become his identity. What about you? We can’t let one low moment become our identity. If we let a certain instance become our identity, we waste the wait. We’ll never act because we are stuck in shame.

My friend, I think you and I are similar to Moses. How much of our passiveness is fueled by the “Who am I” question that plagues us? We, like Moses, wear our mistakes as our identity and disqualify ourselves from the assignment God gave us. “Who am I to talk to my friends about Jesus? I was the one who was partying with them.” “Who am I to give this couple marriage advice? My marriage was a wreck at their age too.” “Who am I to try to get back into my kids’ lives? I drove them away for years.”

As a pastor, I’ve seen these shame-based excuses turn into condemnation that fuels a life of sitting on the sidelines. And guess what? Satan loves it.

Think with me, though. What is the story arc we find throughout the Bible? Perfect people being used by God? No. Was it people who had a past, then got saved, started following Jesus, and never messed up again? No! Did the apostle Peter stop ministering after committing apostasy as Jesus’ disciple? No. A short time later he was restored to Jesus and led the church. Did David, a man after God’s own heart, stop reigning as king after his murder and affair? No. He kept reigning and even asked God to restore the joy of his salvation so he could “teach transgressors Your ways” (Psalm 51:13 NKJV). Did Abraham stop following God after continually not trusting the plan, sleeping with his servant, and putting his wife in jeopardy time and time again? No! He went on to accomplish the call God had for him.

Here’s the Bible’s common thread: We are all sinners in need of the Savior. All of us can recall things we’ve done and think, “Who am I?” And while it is great to embrace humility, it’s not great to embrace condemnation. In other words: Shame can be useful if it’s leading us to humility and repentance, but it’s not meant to lead us to condemnation and passiveness. God has more for you than that. Likewise, He had more for Moses than hiding out in shame for the remainder of his life. So let’s look at Moses’ three excuses in Exodus 4, and see if we can find ourselves anywhere in the story.

Excuses That Keep Us Stuck

1. The assignment is too hard.

Moses’ first excuse is in Exodus 4:1 (NLT) where he asks God, “What if they won’t believe me or listen to me?” In other words, “God, even if I am willing, I can’t control what they think! There is a lot that is out of my control here. I’m not sure I’m the guy for this job.” Sound familiar? We can look at what God’s asking us to do and think, There’s too much not in my control. I’m not the person for the job, God. Why? For the same reason as Moses. In the back of our mind, we are still wearing shame and thinking, Who am I? I’m not good enough! And from that mindset, it’s easier to make this excuse—the assignment is too hard.

2. My ability is insufficient.

That’s not where Moses’ excuses stopped, though. After Moses tells God the job is too hard, he then says, “O Lord, I’m not very good with words” (Exodus 4:10 NLT). Excuse after excuse.

First Moses had a problem with the assignment, now he has a problem with his own ability. Have you ever felt like that? Of course, you have. So have I. We all make this second excuse.

I don’t think anyone ever feels completely able to do what God calls them to. Have you ever heard of the term “imposter syndrome”? It’s basically the feeling someone gets that tells them, “You shouldn’t be the one who’s doing this. You’re not able.” Doctors get imposter syndrome, teachers get imposter syndrome, parents get imposter syndrome. Even pastors get it!

There is certainly a level of “readiness” we need as we step into what God is calling us to do or say. In fact, the whole next section is about improving our abilities.

However, shame can cause us to see ourselves as completely inadequate and unable, influencing us to do nothing and waste precious years. At the end of the day, Moses was one of the best leaders we see in the Bible, and he almost didn’t lead the Israelites out of slavery because of this shame-based excuse.

3. Anyone can do it.

Finally, Moses has one final protest. This was his last attempt to keep hiding and waste the wait. In Exodus 4:13 (NLT), Moses begs God by saying, “Lord, please! Send anyone else.” In other words, Moses was saying, “Anyone can do this!”

Technically, Moses was right. God could have used anyone. However, God trusted Moses with this task. This is how we should think. Rather than an “anyone can do it” mindset, we should have a “God trusted me with this” mindset.

God trusted you with those kids. God trusted you with that elementary class. God trusted you with that spouse. God trusted you with that coworker. God trusted you to coach that team. God trusted you with that youth group. Could someone else do it? Sure. But God trusted you.

Don’t let shame be the reason you don’t do it. If we take the “anyone can do it” mindset, it’s an excuse to not act. If we take the “God trusted me with this” mindset, it’s a reason to act by faith.

Are you making any of these three excuses? Are you wasting the wait because of shame? Are you hesitant because you’re thinking about the times you tried and failed? Are you thinking about the embarrassment you felt when you let people down?

The funny thing is, I’m not here to tell you, “You can do it! You’re good enough!” While I do believe you can do it, I think that misses the whole point of God’s encounter with Moses. The point of the encounter is incredible, but it’s not about how good we are. If we can receive the message, though, we’ll get out of shame and get back to acting by faith.

The Point of the Passage

Did you notice that I left out God’s responses to Moses’ three excuses? I was saving them for right now. Here is a concise, paraphrased version of every response God gives Moses.

Moses’ Protests and God’s Responses in Exodus

Moses: “Who am I…?”

God: “I will be with you.” (Exodus 3:11-12)

Moses: “What if they don’t listen or believe You’re with me?”

God: “I’ll do miracles for proof.” (Exodus 4:1-9)

Moses: “I’m not good at speaking.”

God: “Who makes the mouth speak?” (Exodus 4:10-12)

Moses: “Send anyone else!”

God: “Fine, I’ll go with you and your brother.” (Exodus 4:13-17)

Did you notice anything? Not one time did God answer Moses’ doubts by bringing assurance of Moses’ capabilities. That’s what we like though, right? We love when someone encourages us by telling us how good we are! “Oh, you’re a fantastic mom! You have so much empathy. You’ll be fine.” “Oh bro, you’ll do fine! You are a hard worker!” That kind of assurance makes us feel good. And at times, those words are incredible and needed!

Yet, Moses didn’t get the assurance that he was good enough. Instead, Moses got the assurance that God was good enough. God was capable of making it happen!