Part 2: What is That in Thine Hand? Using what God has given You to your Fullest Potential

 “And the LORD said unto him, What is that in thine hand? And he said, A rod.” Exodus 4:2

Last week in Part 1, we saw five lies that the devil tells us … and that we so gullibly believe … that hinder us from using what God has given to us to our fullest potential.

Life is full of struggles — health, finances, family, relationships, church, etc. I have struggled. You have struggled. Others struggle. Some of us have been so stuck in our struggles that we now sound like a broken record. Our continual whining and complaining and bemoaning and whatever pet name that we have for it has gotten old. We are tired of it and everyone else around us is tired of hearing about it.

I am in no means belittling our struggles because we all have struggles, but it is what we do with our struggles that really counts. So, how do we get past all of these struggles? How do we move through them? How do we conquer them? The answer to all of these questions is this: We do this through Christ.

First and foremost, we have got to get our eyes off of self and the woe-is-me attitude and get our focus back onto God. In our monthly Devotional Study Sheet this month, we are learning so much about how God is our all. In fact, this week we learned that our worth [value] comes from God. We also learned that our instruction must come from God as well.

So, what better place to help us in our life’s struggles than the Word of God.

1.  We must look unto Jesus — Hebrews 12:2 “Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith …” He is the beginning, He is the end, and He is everything in between. Why do we struggle so with unbelief that our Creator will not take care of us? Peter proved to us what happens when we get our eyes on the circumstances around us and off of God (Matthew 14:30-31).

2.  We must rest in confidence that God sees and knows — Matthew 6:8 “Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.” BEFORE we can even ask, He knows!

3.  We must face these struggles in God’s strength — Philippians 4:13 “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” We believe ourselves to be so tough; yet, what strength we forfeit by not letting Him be our strength. He is the omnipotent One! He is the all-powerful One!

4.  We must allow God to provide for us — Philippians 4:19 “But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” So many times I have slipped into the mode of self-preservation, which is completely opposite of what God wants for me and for you.

5.  We must use what God has given us — Exodus 4:2 “And the Lord said unto him, What is that in thine hand? And he said, A rod.” How many times have you and I struggled through life looking for answers, when God had already put the rod in our hand? All we had to do was peel the blinders back to see what God had already provided and then use it!

Peel the blinders back, my friend, and join us here next week to see what God will reveal to us through His Word!