What is in your hand?

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Just because you are not in any official position at church doesn’t mean you lack influence.  Your relationship as daughter of the King of the Universe means you have position and influence.

A mistake a lot of people make is not owning up to that reality. They’re afraid to say anything because they don’t believe they have the position or the title.  Moses had the same problem.

Exodus 4:1 But Moses protested again,”What if they won’t believe me or listen to me? What if they say, ‘The LORD never appeared to you?’

Moses did not have an official position in Egypt or with the nation of Israel.  In fact, the only position Moses had was a shepherd on the backside of the wilderness. He had been training for this moment for a while.

I have asked God that very same question more times than I would like to count.  You know, “who me? You want me to do what? Who is going to believe me or even listen to me for that matter?”

What's in your hand?
God is notorious for answering a question with a question.  Like Moses he asked me the same thing “What is in your hand?”

God is so merciful answering Moses like that.  His mercy totally changes things.  You see, most of us would have replied "Really Moses? What does it matter if they believe you or not? Just go and do it?”

Let me tell you something, it does matter.  The whole point for going was to get the job done. It would have been totally unmerciful to show up with the attitude “oh well, you should have listened.” I believe Moses was on track, it was a great question. There might have been some inkling of self presevation going on with Moses. But hay, God picked him just like he was, self preservation and all.

Common and ordinary
Moses had a shepherd’s staff in his hand.  He had carried that rod around for years. That’s all he had, just a plain ordinary staff.  It probably wasn’t his only one either.  I'd venture to say he had to make a couple of them throughout the years. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if he had two or three laying around in the tent.

Let’s think about this for a second. God tells him to take off his shoes, because he was standing on Holy ground. Moses takes off his shoes and stands before God. Notice he didn’t lay the staff down. He walks on in with it still in his hand! He probably didn’t even realize it was in his hand.

Game Changer
I love game changers. What God does next is a total game changer for Moses. God tells Moses to throw it down. Moses let’s it go, the staff becomes a snake.  To Moses the staff is a staff, to God it’s a game changer. That common ordinary staff did a whole lot more than turn into a snake.

That staff changed the game on a couple of occassions. Once a meeting was going one way, Moses throws down the staff and wha-la it’s a whole new meeting going on!

If God is asking you to approach a subject and like Moses you are wondering “why would they even listen to me?” Look at what is your hand. God sent Moses as a shepherd with a staff.

In Virgina, I watched Allison Mullins, of Bartlick Presbyterian, teach bible verses to a bunch of teens using cell phones and texting. Who knew?  She was using what she had in her hand.

Maybe you are a baker with some flour, an actor with a video camera, a writer with a laptop,  guitar player with three chords and the truth, a painter with some face paint, a personal trainer with some boxing gloves it's all good in God's perspective.

Q4U: Have you eve had to take inventory of your life? Got any tips for the rest of us?