||Surrender what's in your hands||

By taking what was in his hands and surrendering it, moses was acting in the power of God.

See?

Exodus 4:2-5

“The Lord said to him, “What is that in your hand?” He said, “A staff.” 3 And he said, “Throw it on the ground.” So he threw it on the ground, and it became a serpent, and Moses ran from it. 4 But the Lord said to Moses, “Put out your hand and catch it by the tail”—so he put out his hand and caught it, and it became a staff in his hand— 5 “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 was a shepherd, a quiet and stuttering one at that. His profession didn’t lend him to having many friends and hispersonality wasn’t seeming to be altogether winsome to his peers.

That didn’t hold back the Lord God Almighty.

Ezekiel 34:7

“Therefore, you [spiritual] shepherds, hear the word of the Lord:”

Moses was born with gifts : managing, being administrative (how else could you explain leading 1,000,000 people out of Egypt?), a shepherd for sheep (literally) and for his flock (metaphorically).

Moses surrendered what was in his hand (literally) to something beyond his own control. In engaging in a conversation with the Lord God here, Moses would subsequently surrender his surroundings, his logic, his self-protection, his daily life, and his body to the things of God.

Moses surrendered what he had a hold of.

Causes me to wonder and ask: what am I holding on to?

What gifts, talents, strengths, and experiences are packed right here within you and me?  What do we have within reach to leverage for the glory of God?

Romans 12:4-8

“For as in one body we have many members,^[a] and the members do not all have the same function, ⁵ so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. ⁶ Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; ⁷ if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; ⁸ the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads,^[b] with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.”

How will I take up my cross and serve him unabashedly as a follower, a sheep who knows the voice of the Shepherd? I have to know him, know of Him, and be His follower … like sheep follow the Shepherd.

John 10:27

“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.”

And, my next question is: What have I not laid down on the altar of sacrifice? What have I not surrendered in my daily life? What am I still managing, and compartmentalizing?

May my life become a free-fall, a life marked by wholeness in Him, and may my lips offer a sacrifice of praise while my spirit remains bowed low in worship and surrender.

Hebrews 13:15

“Through Him, therefore, let us constantly and at all times offer up to God a sacrifice of praise, which is the fruit of lips that thankfully acknowledge and confess and glorify His name.”