What's In Your Hand?

Today's Reading: 
Exodus 4:1-5:21
Luke 12:35-59
Psalms 18:25-36 
Click on Text Link to Read Online

Focus Verses: Exodus 4:2-5
2 Then the LORD said to him, "What is that in your hand?" "A staff," he replied. 3 The LORD said, "Throw it on the ground." Moses threw it on the ground and it became a snake, and he ran from it. 4 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. 5 "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." 

Insight:
Moses felt insufficient and was reluctant to accept God's call to go to Egypt. He asked God, "What if no one believes me? What if I don't know what to say or how to say it?"

God asked Moses, "What's that in your hand?" And then God demonstrated what could happen with his help and power. God asked him, "Who made your mouth?" After all, if God could make Moses' mouth, surely he could help Moses speak! But Moses still felt inadequate to the task and said, "Please send someone else!"

God was determined to use Moses. Though he was not pleased with Moses' slowness to accept his calling, God continued to do whatever needed to be done to give Moses more confidence.

Response and Action:
What am I holding in my hand? How can God use that for his purpose and glory? What am I holding back, or slow to do, because I lack confidence? I need to trust in God and trust that he has the power to use whatever I have, however small or weak it may seem to me. God made me, and God can use me for his good purpose.

O God, help me to remember that you can use me to do things I could never do on my own. Help me to trust in you and look to you for the strength and guidance I need for life. Give me a strong faith in you, and a readiness to serve you. Through Christ, I pray. Amen.

Spiritual Formation Verses: Ephesians 2:8-10
8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Resources:
Courage and Calling: Embracing Your God-Given Potential
by Gordon T. Smith