Read

Exodus 4:1-5, 10-12 "Moses answered, 'What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, 'The LORD did not appear to you'?' Then the LORD said to him, 'What is that in your hand?' 'A staff,' he replied. The LORD said, 'Throw it on the ground.' Moses threw it on the ground and it became a snake, and he ran from it. 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. '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.' Moses said to the LORD, 'Pardon your servant, Lord. I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue.' The LORD said to him, 'Who gave human beings their mouths? Who makes them deaf or mute? Who gives them sight or makes them blind? Is it not I, the LORD? Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.'"

Think

"What is that in your hand?"

It is one of the simplest questions in the Bible, and one of the most important. God did not ask Moses what he wished he had. He did not ask what Moses thought he needed. He asked what Moses was already holding. And the answer was almost laughable. A staff. A walking stick. The kind of thing every shepherd in Midian carried. Nothing special. Nothing impressive. Just a piece of wood that Moses probably picked up off the ground years earlier and never thought twice about.

"Throw it on the ground."

Moses threw it down, and it became a snake. He ran from it. Then God told him to reach out and grab it by the tail, which is exactly the wrong way to pick up a snake. But Moses obeyed, and the snake turned back into a staff. Same piece of wood. But now it carried the power of God.

I think about a moment from years ago that illustrates this perfectly. I was flipping through an old yearbook, and I came across a photo of a guy I went to high school with. The picture showed him dunking a basketball at seventeen years old. I had not talked to him in years. But something about that photo stuck with me. Several years later, I reconnected with him. Through that reconnection, through conversations and time and God doing what only God can do, he became a Christian. And over the years that followed, his entire family came to faith.

A yearbook. That is what was in my hand. Not a theological treatise. Not a carefully planned evangelism strategy. A high school yearbook and a photo of a kid dunking a basketball. And God turned it into a story of redemption that touched an entire family. That is what God does. He takes the ordinary thing you are already holding and transforms it into something you never could have imagined.

The staff Moses carried was not magical. It had no special properties. But when God told him to throw it down, to surrender it, to let go of it, that staff became a sign of God's authority that would part the Red Sea, strike a rock to bring water, and be raised over the battlefield to bring victory.

But Moses was not done making excuses. After the staff, after the signs, he came back with another one: "I am slow of speech and tongue." Some scholars think Moses had a speech impediment. Others think he simply lacked confidence after forty years of talking to nobody but sheep. Either way, his excuse boiled down to: I do not have the ability.

And God's response is one of the most pointed moments in the entire Old Testament. "Who gave human beings their mouths? Who makes them deaf or mute? Who gives them sight or makes them blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say."

God did not argue with Moses about his speaking ability. He did not offer speech therapy or a public speaking course. He redirected the conversation entirely. He said: “I made your mouth. I designed your voice. I engineered your brain and your tongue and your lungs. Do you really think I cannot use what I created?”

That single response reframes every excuse you and I have ever made. Every time we have told God we are not good enough, not talented enough, not gifted enough, his answer is the same: I made you. I do not make mistakes. And I do not call people I cannot equip.

Here is the deal. It is never about your ability. It is about your availability. God does not look at your spiritual resume and decide whether you qualify. He looks at your hands and asks what you are holding. A teaching gift. A business mind. A compassion for hurting people. A knack for numbers. A way with words, even stumbling ones. Whatever it is, he can use it. But you have to be willing to throw it on the ground first.

That is the part most of us resist. Throwing it down means surrendering control. It means admitting that the staff in your hand is not the source of your power. God is. And until you release it, he cannot transform it. You cannot hold on to something with a clenched fist and expect God to fill your hands at the same time. Open hands. That is where the miracle starts.

That guy from my yearbook did not know it at seventeen, but God was already setting up a connection that would not pay off for another decade. The yearbook was not the point. The reconnection was not the point. God was the point. He just used what was already in my hand to get there.

So what is in your hand today? Do not overthink it. Do not compare it to what someone else is holding. Just answer the question. And then be willing to throw it down.

Apply

Offer what you have – Stop waiting until you feel qualified. Identify one gift, skill, or resource you already have and offer it to God today, even if it feels too small to matter.

Pray

Father, I confess that I focus on what I lack instead of surrendering what I have. You made my mouth. You gave me my gifts. You designed everything about me for a purpose I cannot fully see yet. I throw it down today. Take what is ordinary in my hands and make it extraordinary for your kingdom. In Jesus' name. Amen.