You Have To Hand It To Moses | Northstar Church

“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’?” (Exodus 4:1) “But Moses pleaded with the Lord, “O Lord, I’m not very good with words. I never have been, and I’m not now, even though you have spoken to me. I get tongue-tied, and my words get tangled.” (Exodus 4:10) “But Moses again pleaded, “Lord, please! Send anyone else.” (Exodus 4:13)

While it would seem an illogical thing to do, here was Moses arguing with God in the Sinai. He was actively engaged in what we would today call a pity party. “I can’t do what you want, Lord, because of this excuse and that excuse. People won’t take me seriously. I can’t talk good. Let somebody else do it.”

In the midst of the excuses, God asks Moses a simple question: “What is that in your hand?” (Exodus 4:2) Moses looks at his hand. “A shepherd’s staff.” The Lord tells him to throw it down on the ground. So Moses threw down the staff, and it turned into a snake. Moses jumps back. God tells him to pick it up by the tail and it turns back into a staff. Hmmm. Over the next 40 years of Moses’ life, God used that simple wooden stick to deliver the Israelites from Pharaoh, to open the Red Sea, to win a battle with the Amalekites, to bring water from a rock. Who would have thought? As Moses learned to use in faith what God had put in his hand, his life changed .

My question to you is: What has God put in your hand? Do you wonder how God might use you? Do you see what He has given you? God equips people in various ways. Offer to God in faith what He has given you, no matter how simple, and God will use it — sometimes supernaturally — to do His work. God can use what you have in new and wonderful ways.

When Jesus sees a hungry crowd he says to His disciples: “You feed them.” They are stunned by the magnitude of the need. Andrew checks around. “There’s a boy here with five loaves and two fishes. So what?” Jesus ignores his unbelief. He takes the bread and the fish, lifts them to God in thanksgiving, and then begins to distribute them to the people until all 5,000 plus women and children have been fed. That’s how God’s work gets done. By weak people doing an inventory, then offering to Jesus what they have.

So what do you have in your hand? What gift, skill, resource, relationship, interest, or opportunity do you have that God can use?

Discussion Questions:

Do you feel ill-equipped to do God’s work? Why or why not?
Do you hold back instead of stepping out in faith in certain areas?
What can we do this week to better use what God has given us?