Dare to Dream: What is In Your Hand? Devo

February 10th, 2019

Devotional

“Dare to Dream: What is In Your Hand?”

    Exodus 4: 1-17

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Monday: “What If they Do Not Believe?” - Exodus 4:1

  Moses has had this profound experience with God. God has spoken to him out of a burning bush and has put a call on his life. A call to go and bring the people of Israel out of slavery. Yet, Moses, is deeply struggling with that call. He first asked God, who should he say sent him? He knows that if it is by his own authority alone that there is no way that people are going to follow him. God replied to tell the people that God is named “I am”. I am is sending you. 

But that doesn’t stop Moses’s questions. Next he asks what if the people do not believe me or listen to him? What if he goes and tells people about this powerful burning bush experience and quite frankly they just don’t believe him. Then what?

I think we can all identify with Moses in this moment. On some of the committees I sit on and in countless personal conversations I have heard many people tell their call stories. In most, there was a time of doubt. A time of deep struggle with a call. A time when frankly, they wondered why God would have chosen them. 

Moses is wrestling with his own worth. What if he isn’t good enough? What if the people don’t believe him? But what Moses needed to realize, and we need to affirm in our own lives, that our call isn’t based on our worthiness - it’s based on the power, authority, grace, mercy, and love of our God. 

How do you respond when God calls you do something?

Prayer: God, when we let our own perception of our worthiness get the in the way, we often come up with excuses as to why we can’t follow you. Help us to set those excuses aside, mighty God, in order to respond to your all, not with our own power and might, but with yours alone. Amen. 

Tuesday: “What is In Your Hand?” - Exodus 4:2

Poor Moses is caught up in his own doubts and questions about the call God has placed on his life and God responds with a question of his own - what is in your hand? I can imagine Moses looking down in his hand and saying “what this? It’s just a staff!”

Staffs were important tools for shepherds. They allowed them to crook in sheep that tried to wonder from the flock. It could be used to scare off intruding animals. But when Moses saw it, all he saw was its simplicity. How in the world was was this tool that was great for herding sheep  help with the call of God?

A popular phrase in ministry is that God does not call the equipped, but equips the called. God is starting to show Moses through this question that he is already equipped. He already has what he needs, he just doesn’t recognize it yet. 

What are some of the tools that God has given you for mission and ministry?

Prayer: Lord, we admit that sometimes we look at our own hands and we fail to recognize what is there. We fail to see the tools you have given us for both our individual and corporate calls. Refresh our eyesight, even today, Precious Lord, so we can see what you have already given us through your heart. Amen. 

Wednesday: “So They May Believe” - Exodus 4: 3-9

In the Gospel of John the miracles that Jesus performs are called signs, and they point to the power and authority of God. So it is with Moses. When he responds to God’s question by saying that he has a staff in his hands, God tells him to throw it to the ground. And what happens when he does? It becomes a snake. Then when Moses picks it up it becomes a staff again. 

Moses is told that this is a sign, so that they (the people that Moses worries are going to doubt him) so that they may believe. But believe who and what? Believe that the Lord has appeared to Moses. 

I think, if he was honest, Moses was also craving a few signs. Yes, God had appeared to him in the burning bush, but he also needed a few signs to encourage him to live into the call and the journey ahead. We all crave signs. We spoke in the sermon this week about Gideon, who asked for signs on a fleece so he could be sure. We all want to be sure. But signs don’t exist so that we can be sure, brothers and sisters, they exist to point back to the authority and power of God. 

What have been some signs from God in your life?

Prayer: Lord, we often want signs. Signs of your power. Signs of your authority. Signs that we heard you correctly. Signs that we are going the right direction. Lord, we want to thank you for the signs that we have received and we ask, O Lord, that we do not overlook them. Let us see them, receive them, and give you all the honor and glory for them, we pray. Amen. 

Thursday: “Eloquent” - Exodus 4: 10-12

  Moses has received sign after sign. He has been told that he has his marching orders. He has even been told how to respond to any doubt he may encounter. But Moses still has questions and concerns - chief of which, is that he isn’t eloquent. Words don’t come easily for him, and this seems like a task where words would be required. 

But God respond with another question for Moses - who gave human beings their mouths? Is it not God? It’s another tool that Moses has overlooked. In fact, it’s another tool that Moses may have even considered to be a hinderance. 

Sometimes the things that we feel are hinderances are actually gifts from God. For while Moses may have saw himself as being slow in speech, God saw him as someone he could give words to and teach to speak. 

  What is something that you would consider a difficulty that God has used for his glory?

Prayer: Lord, we want to offer ourselves to you anew today. We want to ask that you use us - all of us - even the parts that we would consider hindrances or difficulties. We give ourselves to you, for your honor, glory, and praise, as a living sacrifice. Amen. 

Friday: “Someone Else” - Exodus 4: 13-17

  But Moses wasn’t quite done with his excuses. In a last ditch effort he tried one more thing - just telling God to send someone else. By this point however, God was a little tired of the excuses. In fact, in the NIV Bible translation it says that God’s anger burned against Moses. But what happens next is actually a little bit humorous. Moses was intending that God send someone else all together, but instead God wouldn’t let Moses wiggle out of his call, sending another person to go with him. 

Brothers and sisters, when we receive a call from God it is our call. We can’t just pass it on to another person. In the same vein, if we receive a call as a church, we can’t just wait for another church to step in and do it in our place. Moses was equipped, not only with his staff, but with Aaron as a companion on the journey. Aaron was simply another blessing from God that God gave in order for Moses to do what he was called to do. 

Who is God inviting to go on the journey of faith and call with you?

Prayer: Lord, thank you for not giving up on us, even when we seem to give up on ourselves. Thank you for not just equipping us with tools, but with companions for the journey. Open our spirits, we pray, to make us willing to respond to your call for us. Amen. 

Saturday: Preparing for the Word

You are invited to read and pray this week’s text and topic: “Dare to Dream: Perseverance” - Matthew 6: 22-24.