But Lord...
John Fischer

“What do you have there in your hand?” (Exodus 4:2 NLT)

Anyone familiar with the calling of Moses by God to be the one to free his people from Egypt knows that calling took place amidst a long litany of excuses and objections on Moses’ part. It is such a human story full of insecurity, fear and trepidation.

“But who am I to appear before Pharaoh?” (3:11)
“How do you expect me to lead the Israelites out of Egypt?” (3:11)
“They won’t believe me.” (3:13; 4:1)
“O Lord… I’m clumsy with my words.” (4:10)
“Lord, please! Send someone else.” (4:13)

Any of these sound familiar? It’s hard to believe that with this beginning, God turned Moses into one of his greatest leaders. It just goes to show that serving God doesn’t depend on great things from us; it depends on our availability to a great God.

This has been God’s strategy from the beginning—to pick ordinary, fallible people like you and me, and do great things through them by faith. I don’t know how we miss this so often, but we do. The Old Testament is riddled with people like this. We often make excuses for ourselves based on other people God is using mightily—that we could never be like them—without realizing they feel just as insecure as we do, the only difference being, they showed up. Greatness, in God’s book, is not a measure of our natural abilities as much as it is a measure of our faith.

Still, God will use what we offer of our natural abilities, but only after we give them over to Him. I believe that is what the shepherd’s staff Moses carried around represented. God asked him to throw it on the ground and when he did, it immediately turned into a serpent; then he told him to pick it up again (that would have been the hardest part!) and it turned back into a staff. (Later, God would use this little trick against Pharaoh and his magicians.)

When we give up what we have in our hand—the few things we do have that we have come to trust—then God can turn even these things into something greater. When we turn from reliance on our natural abilities to a reliance on God, He makes even more of our abilities.

What’s your staff? What have you been leaning on all these years? Is it a natural ability? Is it a drug? Is it something you’re good at? Or is it something that makes you think you’re good, but is really lying to you? Throw it down, and see what God can make of it.

PDL