What's in your hand?

What's in your hand? To what do you hold tight? What do you claim? What do you think you need? What do you think you can't live without? What do you think you have to offer? What are you good at? What talents are you just sure God will use for kingdom purposes?

In This Exodus, God asks Moses, "What's in your hand?" That question sent me the on a trip through scripture and concluded with the answer to my questions, "God, how can you use me? What do I need to do to help you out?" 🤦🏻‍♀️

A brief, but important, synopsis of who Moses was, what he did and how God used him:

"Moses was a prophet, led the Israelites to Mount Sinai and received the Ten Commandments on stone tablets. Moses was 120 years old when he died. He had wandered the desert for 40 years leading the Israelites. He was within view of the Promised Land when he died."

God, sent Moses to speak to the elders of the Israelite people. He told him what to take with him, what to say and how he'd be received. The Israelites were enslaved by the Egyptians but God assured him that he would not be alone....He, God, I AM would be with him.

Moses' response is often my response.

"Moses answered, “What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, ‘The Lord did not appear to you’?” Then the Lord said to him, “What is that in your hand?” “A staff,” he replied.
Exodus 4:1‭-‬2

That staff sent me on a journey about the significance of what's in my hand. Might not be what you think.... certainly wasn't what I thought I was going to find....and learn....

God used that simple shepherd's staff to do miraculous things. Here are three:

•To part the Red Sea
•To bring water from a Rock
•To win the battle over the Amalekites

"Moses said to Joshua, “Choose some of our men and go out to fight the Amalekites. Tomorrow I will stand on top of the hill with the staff of God in my hands.”
Exodus 17:9

It was not a Royal Septor (described as a ceremonial staff often used by Kings) but an ordinary tool....carried by an ordinary man...to wield extraordinary power and leadership...neither which Moses felt comfortable or equipped to do.

That was Moses....let's look at some other ordinary people used for extraordinary purpose.

Shamgar was a judge. He was an Israelite. He faced 600 armed pagan soldiers with a lowly farm tool called an oxgoad. God used what Shamgar had, what was available, easily accessible. Shamgar, like Moses had to be willing and courageous. They were and God, through him displayed great victories.

Let's go on....

David, a shepherd boy, with a slingshot in his hand and a bag of stones hanging on his shoulder, slew a giant. No gun, no bow and arrow.....but what he had in his hand. His courage and willingness were required and God did the rest.

Let's go on...

In John 6:9 the people were hungry.... Jesus questioned how they would feed the crowd. It seemed impossible for all the reasons we could think of to feed a crowd of people today . Andrew spoke up and said,

“Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?”
John 6:9

Jesus told them to have the people sit down and he took what was in the boy's hand and multiplied it to feed the 5,000 men with twelve baskets leftover.

A little boy with a basket of bread and a couple of fish in his hands. A willingness to obey and believe was all that was needed.

Let's jump back to the Old Testament for the most precious of the stories to me....you'll see why....

"The wife of a man from the company of the prophets cried out to Elisha, “Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that he revered the Lord. But now his creditor is coming to take my two boys as his slaves.”
2 Kings 4:1

"Elisha replied to her, “How can I help you? Tell me, what do you have in your house?” “Your servant has nothing there at all,” she said, “except a small jar of olive oil.”
2 Kings 4:2

"Tell me, what do you have in your house?"

With courage and belief the woman did as Elisha said, gathered empty jars from her neighbors, and began to poor from her small jar until all of the jars were full of oil. Enough to sell and provide for her and her sons.

"She went and told the man of God, and he said, “Go, sell the oil and pay your debts. You and your sons can live on what is left.”
2 Kings 4:7

And with those beautiful examples of extraordinary courage, amazing willingness, exceptional obedience, astonishing strength I now understand that, just like Moses, Shamgar, David, the little boy and the widow that God will use the ordinary to do remarkable, miraculous, sensational, incredible, phenomenal, spectacular in his people.....in HIS timing, for his people.

Honestly, I am blown away.... God's word does not EVER leave me stranded in my own thoughts of inadequacies, my feelings of uselessness, my striving for worth, nor my struggle with what I perceive to be lack of contribution.

He WILL use what I have for his kingdom work. I need not add to it or subtract from it. I need to be still, wait patiently and when he calls, for he will, I need to step out with what I have with great willingness and courage.