What is that in Your Hand?

This past Sunday we continued our “Questions that GOD Asks Us” message series and I taught from Moses at the burning bush and the questions he was asked by GOD: “What is that in your hand?” (Exodus 4:2) You can watch it by clicking here.

GOD was calling Moses to the mighty task of leading His people out of slavery in Egypt to the Promised Land. This calling terrified Moses. He did not feel he was up to the task and began making excuses for why he wasn’t the one best suited for the task.

My guess is we can probably relate to Moses. When GOD asks us to do something, we tend to offer up a whole host of excuses to why we are not the best candidate. Some of the most common excuses are: I don’t have enough money. I don’t have enough time. I don’t have enough energy. I don’t know enough about the Bible. I don’t play well with others. I think you catch my drift.

Something to bear in mind, though, as we think about our lives with the Lord, is He is going to call us to a GOD-sized task. Let’s face it…this can be terrifying! It calls us out of our comfort zones and challenges to make an honest assessment of who we are and what we are capable of doing. But if this is where we stop, we are limiting GOD’s power by our lack of faith.

I can hardly imagine how intimidating GOD’s call to Moses must have felt. Moses knew about life in Egypt and he knew he was a marked man for killing the Egyptian taskmaster. Moses knew about shepherding and leading animals while working for his father-in-law, and how difficult that can be at times. And I am sure that while Moses spent time in the fields with the animals, he had an opportunity to spend time with GOD. Looking back in hindsight, it is certainly easy to see why GOD chose Moses; his experience and character made him a unique candidate to go to Pharaoh’s court, proclaim GOD’s message, and lead GOD’s people through the wilderness to the Promised Land. Moses problem, though, was he was too focused on himself and could only sense his limitations.

When GOD asked his question of Moses – “What is that in your hand?” – GOD wanted Moses to make a serious assessment of what it was he carried with him as he went back to Egypt. Sure, it was a simple shepherd’s staff, but GOD illustrated that it was an instrument by which Moses would accomplish GOD’s wonders and liberate an entire nation. The Lord was behind this GOD-sized task and He wanted Moses to be assured that as He went into Egypt, he was under GOD’s power and protection.

In addition to his staff, I taught in our message about three other things that Moses carried with him. These are things that you and I can access as well today. They are: (1) our abilities – those things GOD has created you to do; (2) our experiences – our life history, good and bad, that can help us relate to others; and (3) our inadequacies – this might seem a bit odd, but bear with me. GOD wants us to know that our inadequacies provide the room for GOD to move; otherwise, we would be inclined to think that we complete our GOD-sized task by our own strength, stamina and savvy.

All of us have been called to a GOD-sized task that would be doomed to failure if the Lord wasn’t behind it. We have our abilities, experiences, and inadequacies to help us realize confidence, relate to others, and rely on GOD’s power, protection, and provision. What we must learn to do then is turn our excuses into expressions of faith! This is when we say, “I can’t” while acknowledging “GOD can!”

May you bring your impossible to the One who can make it possible; may you turn your excuses into expressions of faith; and may you know that when you tackle your GOD-sized faith, the Lord is the One who gives you the power and protection of His holy presence!

I look forward to seeing you Sunday when we continue our series exploring our next question, “What is your name?”