What is in your hand?

You may be holding something that feels small. There may be a skill, a job, relationships and opportunities that is so familiar they have stopped feeling significant. But God may have a question for you today. The same question he asked Moses.

“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.” ⁶ Then the Lord said, “Put your hand inside your cloak.” So Moses put his hand into his cloak, and when he took it out, the skin was leprous^[a]—it had become as white as snow. ⁷ “Now put it back into your cloak,” he said. So Moses put his hand back into his cloak, and when he took it out, it was restored, like the rest of his flesh.” (Exodus 4 v 2-7)

God asked Moses a simple question. “What is that in your hand?”

Just a shepherd’s stick. Moses had carried it for forty years, a work tool of an ordinary man doing an ordinary job. But God wanted it.

God doesn’t ask Moses what he wishes he had. He doesn’t point him toward someone else’s gifting or another man’s resources. He asks about what he already has and what he is familiar with using.

The Bible is full of this message in a variety of ways.

The feeding of the thousands came from what was in a child’s hands.

Shamgar had a farmer’s tool, and with it he struck down six hundred Philistines and saved Israel (Judges 3:31).

Joshua stretched out his javelin toward Ai and held it there until the battle was won (Joshua 8:18).

David reached into a stream and picked up five smooth stones, and the giant fell.

Dorcas had a needle and thread, and her hands became an expression of the gospel in Joppa (Acts 9:36-39).

The widow at Zarephath had a little oil (1 Kings 17:8-16).

The question is not, “What do you wish you had?” It is always what is in your hand?

Moses thought he had a stick. God saw the beginning of a nation’s deliverance.

The question hasn’t changed. What is in your hand—and are you willing to make it available?