Right now there are five prayers I want answered, and I want them answered now. Most of them are blessings that have me at the center of them with the long term vision of blessing my family, friends, and community.
But I like easy. Easy makes me happy. Hard makes me squirm.
So instead of rolling up my sleeves, putting on my work gloves, and getting a little dirt on my face, I turn to my make-believe God dust, take out my magic wand, and begin sprinkling cries and begs and pleads all over my requests. And I do it right from the cushion on my sofa.
Then I wonder . . . why is God so quiet nowadays? Does He hear me? Does He not know that it is really for Him – His kingdom – and not me? Is He ever going to answer me? Does He even love me?
God is not a magic wand and there is no such thing as God dust.
A wise person told me recently that God wants us to use what is in our hands right now. Not a magic wand where all of a sudden everything we dream is before us, but the gifts, talents, and tools we’ve been provided. We’re not just to sit around and wait for miracle, but use what we have today in preparation for the manifestation of the miracle over time.
Isn’t this what God instructed Moses to do?
But Moses protested again, “What if they won’t believe me or listen to me? What if they say, ‘The Lord never appeared to you’?”
Then the Lord asked him, “What is that in your hand?” “A shepherd’s staff,” Moses replied.
“Throw it down on the ground,” the Lord told him. So Moses threw down the staff, and it turned into a snake! Moses jumped back.
Then the Lord told him, “Reach out and grab its tail.” So Moses reached out and grabbed it, and it turned back into a shepherd’s staff in his hand.
“Perform this sign,” the Lord told him. “Then they will believe that the Lord, the God of their ancestors—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob—really has appeared to you.”
Exodus 4:1-5
Moses did not take out a magic wand, wave God dust everywhere, and magically deliver the Israelites out of Egypt.
Instead God told him to use what was right there in front of him – his staff. His staff that was from God and for God. His staff that God used to carry out His purposes. His staff that was used to bring about the miracle.
Each of us has a staff. God has equipped each of us, right now, with gifts, talents, and tools that we can use to accomplish His purposes for us.
But will we use them? Or will we continue to sit back on our comfy sofas and wave our magic God wand in the air?
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