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Oilfield Workers Sharing Christ Around the World

QUESTIONS GOD ASKS – WEEK 5 – “WHAT IS THAT IN YOUR HAND?”

Photo by Claudio Schwarz on Unsplash

By Mike Chaffin

 So the Lord said to him, “What is that in your hand?” He said, “A rod.” Exodus 4:2

          I never watched the television show MacGyver. However, it was so popular, and his impromptu inventions so clever, the Oxford English Dictionary added the word MacGyver as a verb meaning to make or fix something in an inventive way using whatever is available. However, the television character who could build almost anything out of spare parts, never performed miracles. He was just inventive with whatever was handy.

          On the other hand, throughout the Bible God performed miracles with what we have in our hands or at our disposal.

          In our key verse he turns an inanimate object, a rod, into a living creature and back into a rod while talking to Moses from a burning bush that doesn’t burn.

          In the Exodus journey he wrings water out of a rock. He turns the morning dew into wafers of bread for the Israelites. They called this unknown food ‘manna’ which means ‘what is it?’

          Elijah lives for a period near the brook Cherith. God has ravens bring him food. Then he moves to a village where a widow lives. She’s going to make one last meal of her remaining flour and oil and lay down to die, both her and her son. Elijah asks God to keep the flour jar and oil vase refilled until the drought is over. It never runs out.

          Elisha helps a widow with her debt problem, instructing her to collect as many jars as she can and fill them up with the oil in her one little vase and sell them to cover her bills. She fills dozens of jars and God erases her debts.

          Jesus turns water into wine, turns five loaves and two fish into enough to feed five thousand men, plus women and children, and have baskets of leftovers. He has Peter catch a fish, take a coin out of its mouth, and pay their taxes.

          There is nothing God can’t do with what you have at your disposal unless you won’t open your hand in answer to His answered prayers.

          In each instance above the people were listening to God and responded, changing lives, saving families, supplying needs, and creating a nation. These may have seemed like insignificant things at the time, but they ignited faith and possibility.

          However, when we don’t respond to give God what is in our hand, we pass on the opportunity for a blessing and being a blessing to others. The rich young ruler who asked Jesus what he had to do to inherit eternal life was unwilling to let go.

16 Now behold, one came and said to Him, “Good Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?” 17So He said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.” 18He said to Him, “Which ones?” Jesus said, “‘You shall not murder,’ ‘You shall not commit adultery,’ ‘You shall not steal,’ ‘You shall not bear false witness,’ 19‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ ” 20The young man said to Him, “All these things I have kept from my youth. What do I still lack?” 21Jesus said to him, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” 22But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. Matthew 19:16-22

          This command sounds extreme, but in this man’s case, he cared more for the riches of this world than his own soul. Money isn’t the problem. The love of money is. It is as bad as when the Israelites in the Old Testament put more faith in horses and chariots than in prayer for God’s covering and victory. When they prayed, and believed, they received. When they didn’t, they were defeated.

          For the question, “What is in your hand?” the lesson is clear. Whether God nudges us to do something, and to use what we have in our hands, or God uses what is at hand to bless us, we need to be obedient. Obedience leads to blessings for you and for others.

Contemplation: What am I holding onto that God is asking me to let go. Think on this old saying, “let go and let God!”

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