What is in Your Hand?
Hello again! It’s been more than a few months since I shared anything. To begin with, this year has been quite the wild roller coaster ride. I’m stating the obvious, I know. What amazes me, however, is that it has also been a year of God’s promises unfolding in my life. I am discovering once again that He is not limited by the political or economic climate of our day. He never has been and never will be. He is Lord over all things, especially the timing of His promises. When the time comes for His promises to unfold, it doesn’t matter what the headlines of the day are saying, what plague or disaster has covered the earth, or which empire is dominating the world. It doesn’t matter who or what is against you, He watches over His word. If He spoke it, He will make it happen.
With such assurance on our side, there should be no place for those of us who believe and have proclaimed Jesus as our Lord and Savior, to have any doubt to show up and speak up. From the beginning of time, the story of mankind has been determined by men and women simply showing up and taking action.
Think of Abraham accepting God’s call to step out of the familiarity of Ur and walking into the dessert, not knowing where he was going. Hebrews 11:8 says, “By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.” He heard the call, said yes, packed up and went, not knowing where he was going.
Think of that moment when the Lord tested Abraham. Hebrews 11:17 says, “By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had received the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son…” These are powerful examples of faith, but his faith was proven by his actions.
Think of Moses when he refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. Hebrews 11:24 says, “He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time.” And verse 27, “By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the king’s anger; he persevered because he saw him who is invisible.”
Hebrews 11:23 says, “By faith Moses’ parents hid him for three months after he was born.”
Think of Noah. Hebrews 11:7 says, “By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family.”
How does this relate to the time we are all living through today? We too are looking to the fulfillment of God’s promise. Especially this year, like never before, we are longing to see the day when Christ returns and puts an end to all suffering. We yearn for the fulfillment of Revelations 21:3, where we are given a promise: “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, ‘Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
What an amazing future we can look forward to. But what are we to do until then? What about the economic instability we have to survive? What about the political tensions we have to endure? What about all the natural disasters and health crises covering the earth? Do we just wait it out until Christ returns and tells us it’s safe to come out from hiding? I don’t believe that is the position we are called to.
Hebrews 11:13 says, “All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country –a heavenly one.”
As they longed for and anticipated the coming of Gods’ promise, Noah built an ark, Abraham moved out into the dessert and offered up his only son, Moses’ parents hid him, and Moses chose to be mistreated along with the Hebrews and left Egypt. The Hebrews walked through the Red Sea as on dry land, the walls of Jericho fell after the people had marched around them for seven days, the prostitute Rahab welcomed the spies and was not killed with those who were disobedient, Hannah conceived and offered Samuel to a lifetime of service at the temple, and Mary obeyed the news Gabriel announced to her.
These men and women were as human as we are, but “through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength, and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies.” (Hebrews 11:33-34).
However, what I have observed among some believers is that they are looking forward to that moment of victory when Jesus returns. I believe the Lord is actually saying to the church, “Stop waiting for that moment of victory! I have ALREADY won!” If Noah, Abraham, Moses, and all the heroes of faith we read about in the Bible showed up and took action in their day, even as they looked to the promised Messiah who would take away this sins of the world, how much more of an advantage we have today to show up, speak up, and take action, standing firm on the victory that Christ has already won over evil on the cross at Calvary?
What does it look like to take action? It’s actually very simple: what do you have in your hand? God asked Moses this very question when He was sending Moses to deliver his people from Egypt. Moses asked God how he can prove to the people that God truly sent him. God’s reply was, “What is in your hands?” Moses was tending the flock of his father-in-law. He was a shepherd. What he had in his hand was a tool for the very mundane job he had at the moment God called him, not a weapon to bring down an oppressive empire. But God isn’t limited to man-made weapons to accomplish His purposes.
I remember a season in my life about which I already shared on this blog. It was a season of endless diaper changes, feedings, coordinating of naptimes, piles of dishes to wash, and all the unseen and less than glorious daily activities of a mother up to her elbows raising babies. I remember releasing my husband to far away countries for mission trips and hearing of all the exciting things God was doing far away through others and thinking to myself, “Lord, what about me. What can I do that would be of significant value to you?”
I remember what the Lord whispered into my heart at that time. He simply asked me, “What do you have in your hands?” In that moment, I was once again nursing a baby, while making sure the older children wouldn’t wake the napping toddler. All I could answer in that moment was, “Babies! I’ve got my hands full of babies, Lord!” Our conversation ended with God simply saying, “Be a mother.” I had no idea at that time what God was up to. It didn’t seem so exciting in the moment, but I accepted God’s call to simply be a mother. I decided then that if I was going to advance the Kingdom of Heaven by being a mother, then I was going to put all my strength into being just that. Everything I did was for the sake of my children. No expense was too high or sacrifice too great. I changed those diapers, and cooked those meals, and even homeschooled my children as though I was building the Kingdom right there in my home, complete with my hair in a bun, playdough and crayons available at any moment, all to the tune of cute children’s worship music in the background.
Fast forward a decade or so to 2020. Over the course of these months that the world has been in relative chaos, God has given me an amazing opportunity to also help families who had no choice but to homeschool their children this year. Suddenly, God’s question about what was in my hands makes sense. He has been weaving His promise into my life long before I knew what He was doing, but it all hinged on me showing up and saying yes. What hinders us from taking action many times is this misconception that God is expecting us to do something impressive to show our faith. Most of the time, God is simply asking us to take action with what we already have.
I will finish this post with a question: What do you have in YOUR hand? Whom can you serve at this very moment? Do not despise that seemingly unseen act of service and obedience. If God brought down an empire with a shepherds tool in Moses’ hand, what can He do with what you have to offer him?
