What’s In Your Hand?

Something I’ve learned over the years about God is, He really just wants us to be faithful with the small things. I remember, once a long time ago, when I’d vowed to start jogging every day I thought, “If I can just get the right outfit, the right shoes, it’ll be great! I’ll be even more motivated to get in shape.” I’m certain it’s that attitude among so many people that gave Nike the idea to birth the slogan “Just do it!” With their shoes on, of course.

But what God has shown me is that we need to use what we already have. Look around you. See what you already have. You’ll probably find that you already have everything you need to get started on living out your dreams and callings in life. In the book of Exodus God asked Moses, “What’s that in your hand?” I’ve heard Him ask me that same question. It’s the simple things, the small things, the things that you already have that He can use to show His power through you to the whole world.

“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. The Lord said, ‘Throw it on the ground.’ Moses threw it on the ground and it became a snake, and he ran from it. Then the Lord said to him, ‘Reach out your hand and take it by the tail.’ So Moses reached out and took hold of the snake and it turned back into a staff in his hand. ‘This’, said the Lord, ‘is so that they may believe that the Lord, the God of their fathers–the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob–has appeared to you.” (Exodus 4:1-5)