What's in Your Hand?

By PaisleyJade - Wednesday, September 04, 2019


  

No matter who we are, we want to feel like our life matters and has purpose – but when we live an ordinary mundane life, it’s sometimes hard to imagine that it does.

There is one particular story in the Bible that reminds me that even in my everyday life, God can use ordinary me in amazing ways. This is in the story of Moses with his staff (read Exodus 3 & 4).  God has amazing plans and purposes and he loves to partner with ordinary people to help carry these out.  Ordinary, everyday people like you, me, and Moses.  Moses had made some big mistakes in his life (including murdering a guy), yet God still chose to involve Moses in his plans.  Moses made excuses of course (as we usually do), but finally God asked him this interesting question in Exodus 4:2, “What is that in your hand?.” God used the ordinary shepherd’s tool, a staff, to do something amazing and change lives as well as the course of history.

You may be wanting to live an exciting life for God, but then you look around at your ordinary life… the boring 9-5pm job (or the fact you are currently unemployed), your everyday chores at home, the small skill set of things you can do while totally aware of the giant skillset of things you can’t.  You may be busy looking at your struggles and weaknesses and flaws and past full of mistakes and stuff ups… and yet maybe God is just looking at you saying, “what is in your hand?”.

What if the thing God has called you to do right now in this season of your life involves the thing that is in your hand?

Moses had been carrying around that ordinary piece of wood for many years, and nothing dramatic had happened as a result. But after Moses surrendered the wooden rod to the Lord, it amazingly became “the rod of God” instead of merely the rod of Moses. No longer a mere piece of wood, this rod enabled Moses to part the Red Sea, bring water out of a rock, and defeat enemy armies.  What is in YOUR hand, my friend? Money? Time? Possessions? Influence? Some kind of special God-given aptitude?  If you’re honest, the thing in your hand probably seems totally inadequate to meet the needs around you. However, you’ll be amazed by what can happen when you surrender it to the Lord. – Inspiration Ministries 

If you’re struggling to know what God wants you to do, or how he can use you for his plans, start by looking at what’s in your hand.  That ordinary thing might be the answer… don’t despise it. Like Moses’ staff, it may be the tool of your daily trade or job… a hammer, computer, whiteboard marker, pair of scissors, a mop or broom, a clipboard, a guitar, a sewing machine, a spade, all ordinary things.  Maybe it’s a skill you possess, or an opportunity that’s come your way, or the people around you that you influence on a day to day basis.  Maybe it is something simple like a word of encouragement spoken, a hug, your story of hope, a bed for the night, a hot meal for a tired soul, a listening ear, a pen put to paper.

“What good is that?”, you may think to yourself.  But look at what God did with an ordinary staff – something absolutely amazing.  I’m sure if God can use an ordinary piece of wood to do amazing things, he can use you and me.


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