What’s in Your Hand? Where Do You Stand?

April 9, 2019

I was cupbearer to the king. Nehemiah 1:11b

When God was looking for a deliverer for His people who were slaves in Egypt, He called out to Moses, a shepherd in the desert. When Moses responded with disbelief and his inadequacies for such a monumental task, God asked him, “What’s in your hand?” That shepherd’s staff was what Almighty God intended to leverage with Moses against the Pharaoh.

When God was searching for someone to rebuild Jerusalem and restore His people to their home, He spoke to Nehemiah, a captive who was working for the foreign king. Nehemiah described where he stood: “I was cupbearer to the king.” God was pleased. He intended to use Nehemiah’s position and connections to do something timely and amazing in the desolation.

Our stories to this point in time are the very ingredients and tools God wants to use to make a difference in the broken situations around us. We have the tools in our hands that our lives have given us, redeemed and shaped by God. We are standing in the very position that gives us the influence we need to do what God knows is vital.

Your story is God’s great resource for using you. Your job/profession is not a handicap or an excuse. We ALL are the church. We ALL have the responsibility to use whatever status, influence, resources, connections, privileges, and knowledge we have for the sake of those around us.

Take an inventory of what you hold in your hands and where you stand. What is your story? What has God taught you through the course of your life that could be used for healing the brokenness around you? What are the gifts and abilities you have that could make a difference in the situation? Where do you stand? What networks and connections do you have that God might use to help this generation see Him in a new way?

• Ask God to show you your resources and connections in a new way, considering what HE can use to win a lost and broken generation.