Throw It Down

SCRIPTURE: Exodus 4:2-4 Then the Lord asked him, “What is that in your hand?” “A shepherd’s staff,” Moses replied. 3 “Throw it down on the ground,” the Lord told him. So Moses threw down the staff, and it turned into a snake! Moses jumped back. 4 Then the Lord told him, “Reach out and grab its tail.” So Moses reached out and grabbed it, and it turned back into a shepherd’s staff in his hand.

OBSERVATION: "What is in your hands?" is a question that God often addresses to us. When God puts a challenge in front of us, one, like Moses, we feel totally inadequate to accomplish, this is what He asks us. In the midst of our feeling like we are not able, God points to what He has already given us. It may not seem like much--like the stick Moses had--maybe it isn't much but all God asks is that we give the little we have for His use.

"Throw it down!" In other words, give over to Him the little you have, or are, and discover what He can make of it.

With that staff Moses performed miracles in Egypt, he parted the Red Sea and led the Children of Israel to the Promised Land. Not bad for a stick!! Just imagine what God can do with what we have (our meager talents, influence and resources) when we "throw them down" and let God use them with His miraculous power.

APPLICATION/CONFESSION: The cure for the inadequacies I feel is not to convince myself that I have the "right stuff", that I can do it, that I have what it takes. What God calls me to do, in the midst of feeling like I can't, is to actually give up what little I have--to throw it down and then sit back and see what He will do with what I give Him. Not easy, but very important!

PRAYER: Here is my life Lord. I'm not sure that I have what it takes to be the dad, husband or pastor you have called me to be--but I give you what I am and ask you to deliver and bless your people through me.