What's In Your Hands?
Dear Friends,
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| What's In Your Hands? |
Last week we looked at the example of Moses and how he initially responded in fear when God called him to serve him. (You can read it here )
This week we are continuing with the example of Moses and exploring how God wants us to respond in faith, not with fear. We read in Exodus 4:2-5:
Then the Lord asked him, “What is that in your hand?”
“A shepherd’s staff,” Moses replied.
“Throw it down on the ground,” the Lord told him. So Moses threw down the staff, and it turned into a snake! Moses jumped back.
Then the Lord told him, “Reach out and grab its tail.” So Moses reached out and grabbed it, and it turned back into a shepherd’s staff in his hand. (NLT)
The question God asked Moses is the same one he is asking us today:
“What is in your hands?”
For Moses, it was a shepherd’s staff. He was a shepherd and had been for forty years. He knew how to care for, protect and lead his sheep. He knew how to live in desert conditions and how to take responsibility for those in his care. These were all skills needed when it came to leading God’s people. And let’s not forget his experience in the palace, his experience of the Egyptian culture which would be very useful when God sent him to communicate with Pharaoh.
What is in your hands is a question which relates to your gifts, talents, abilities, experiences, resources. Anything in fact.
What do you see when you look down at your hands? One of the things I see in mine is a pen. For you, it may be a guitar or another musical instrument, a teacup (perhaps you are great at befriending people over cups of tea), a duster (cleaning brings you incredible joy and satisfaction). Perhaps you are good at making someone feel at home, or you are skilled in technology, or you have experience of living with and managing depression. Maybe you are good at relating to a particular age group, or you are skilled in art and design or baking or thinking outside of the box. Maybe for you, it’s something else.
So I ask you again: “What do you see when you look down at your hands?”
So I ask you again: “What do you see when you look down at your hands?”
God told Moses to let go, to release that which was in his hands. I don’t think that was easy to do. Do you? God was asking Moses to let go of that which he had control of, to surrender it over to God and to allow God to use it as he wanted.
I know how difficult this is from personal experience. We like to be in control, in charge. It’s scary to let it go. But I can also say that it is rewarding. I believe this surrender to God is something he asks of each one of us. But he won’t force it on us. He wants us to choose surrender. He wants us to want to give up what we consider belongs to us and hand it over to him. The truth is, that nothing we have belongs to us, because all we have comes from God in the first place. It’s just we sometimes forget this and become possessive over it.
But when we do surrender it to God something amazing happens. What was an ordinary ‘tool’ in our own hands becomes extraordinary in God’s! Moses’ staff was no longer just a staff, it became a snake, a miracle, and evidence of God’s power.
Are you prepared, in faith, to hand over whatever you have in your hands to God and see just what he will do with it? What we give him, he gives back to us so that we can partner with him and do some incredible things, greater things than we could ever have done on our own. Now that’s exciting! Don’t you think?
I’m reminded of the feeding of the five thousand. (You can read the account here). A young boy surrendered his small lunch, five loaves and two fish to Jesus. And in Jesus’ hands, it became so much more. Jesus used what was in this boy’s hands to perform a miracle to feed over five thousand people, and with more to spare.
As you are reading this, you may be feeling a bit daunted right now. It is scary when we step out of our comfort zone to do something which we know is beyond our own abilities. I read this quote recently (I can’t remember who wrote it) but it greatly encouraged me. I hope it will you too:
“The will of God will never lead you where the power of God can’t enable you.”
God isn’t calling you to use what you have in your hands on your own. He’s calling you to work with him.
I wonder if you’re reading this and thinking to yourself: “But it's too late for me, time has passed me by.”
I think there must have been times when Moses felt the same. After all, he wasn’t getting any younger. But time is not important to God. Whilst we are still here, he still has something for us to do. Our availability is what is important to God. Moses had waited a long time, but now was the time for action. Perhaps you’ve been waiting a long time too, but God is saying to you that now is the time to act.
What is your response?
Will you choose to respond in faith, recognise what God has placed in your hands, surrender it to him so that he can use it and you for his glory.
I want to finish with one of my favourite passages in the Bible:
Now to Him who is able to [carry out His purpose and] do superabundantly more than all that we dare ask or think [infinitely beyond our greatest prayers, hopes, or dreams], according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever. Amen. Ephesians 3:20-21 (AMP)
To Think About:
What is in your hand? I believe it’s important to realise that nothing is insignificant to God. You may see it as something which is not worth much, but that’s not how God sees it.
Will you surrender it over to God?
Will you act in faith and use what he has placed in your hands to serve him and fulfil his purposes?
Take some time with God and ask him how he wants you to use what he has placed in your hands. It may be something you’ve not considered before or he may want to use it in a way that is very different from how you would expect.
Vicki
Vicki
This week's and last week's devotional is based on a sermon I recently preached in my home church on Sunday 27th January. If you would like to listen to it, please click here.
If you enjoyed reading this devotional blog, then you may like to know that I have two devotional books both of which are available to buy from Amazon. (The content of these books is material adapted from past blog posts.)
This is my latest book, published in November 2018.
"Dear Friend...52 Weekly Devotions to Encourage, Challenge and Inspire" Volume 2.
The book's format is the same as my first one with the added extra of room for journalling after each devotion. To learn more, click here
"Dear Friend... Vol 1 is available from Amazon as a paperback book and also to download on Kindle.
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