What Do You Have in Your Hand?

The LORD said to him, “What is that in your hand?” He said, “A staff.”
Exodus 4:2

It was a bright and cloudless morning.
As Leah and I waited for the doors of the elevator to open and to step into a  new chapter of life, we carried a common anxiety.  This would be our very first day as parents away from the attentive eyes of a great team of medical professionals.  As we clumsily fastened this brand new life into his seat, I could not help but wonder if I was prepared for the great responsibility being handed to me.   Ten years later, my concerns about being a good parent remain with me.  And yet, I have come to the realization that my children do not need me to be perfect, but present—simply faithful, reliable, available.

In our relationship with Christ, we can carry similar misguided notions concerning readiness.  You may listen repeatedly to the voice in your mind that would convince you that God can never use anyone with the flaws and weaknesses that you possess.  In your mind, it makes sense to believe the story that there is something in your history that disqualifies you from being an instrument of honorable use in the hands of the Master (2 Timothy 2:21).

Allow me to share a liberating truth with you: God does not need your perfection.

Indeed, it may be a bit humbling for you to come to terms with the fact that God does not need you at all.  Did God need Moses?  Was it necessary that Moses enrolled in some ancient version of Toastmasters in order for God to accomplish His purposes?  Clearly God demonstrates to His unwilling servant that He is able to perform the most amazing miracles with the most mean and ordinary instruments we have lying already in our hands—- if only we’d make them available to Him.

Please do not hear me saying that is okay to practice lazy stewardship or cut corners or give God less than our very best.  Nevertheless, if we are willing to offer to God the pieces of bread we have in our possession, we may be amazed by the miracle that God produces simply because we were present—faithful, reliable, available.

Do this now…tell God that all that you have and all that you are is His for His purposes and for His glory.
Go ahead.   I’ll wait…
Did you do it?
Great!  Now say a similar prayer every single morning for the rest of your life and began to experience for yourself that God is able to do exceedingly and abundantly above all we ask or imagine (Ephesians 3:20).

In Him,

Pastor Mark