What is Your Rod?

It’s easy to compare ourselves to others. In this age of social media, everything in everyone's life is put on display. The truth is, you wouldn’t know half of what goes on in your peer's lives if it wasn’t for social media. Yet, we all have a front-row seat to see everyone else's “POV”. The problem is we quickly begin to compare our lives to those that we see online. 

Beyond looks or possessions, we can feel like we don’t have the same talents or abilities as others. That may be true, but just because you aren’t good at public speaking or being funny doesn’t mean you are any less valuable and capable of doing great things for God. 

Consider Moses

Exodus 4:2

So the Lord said to him, “What is that in your hand?”

He said, “A rod.”

This verse is so powerful, I remember reading this verse years ago in my morning devotions and it caused me pause. This verse comes from the passage where God is calling Moses to be the deliverer of His people (the burning bush encounter). Moses is trying anything he can to get out of this job. He asks God, “well, what if they don’t believe that you sent me?” (Exodus 4:1). To this God doesn’t say that He would shout from Heaven “I sent him!”, He turned the question to Moses asking “what resources do you have?”. God had already provided Moses with what he needed to do great things for Him. The gifts and the resources. Moses went on to say, that he wasn’t “eloquent” when he spoke (Exodus 4:10), God’s response was (Exodus 4:11),

“Who has made man’s mouth? Or who makes the mute, the deaf, the seeing, or the blind? Have not I, the Lord?

Even though Moses had all he needed to succeed, God would still help him where he lacked. Moses wasn’t so sure, so God sent along Aaron, Moses’ elder brother to help him on his mission. Again, God had already prepared Moses by placing him in a family with siblings to assist him. 

If you don’t know Moses’ whole story please read it (He was born in Exodus 2 and his death is recorded in Deuteronomy 34)! The once intimidated and insecure Moses became the deliverer of the children of Israel who wrote the first 5 books of the Bible and spent more time in the presence of God than any other man in the Bible. 

The Bible is full of stories like this. The woman who used her precious and expensive perfume to wash Jesus’ feet (Matthew 26:6-13) gave all she had. In the Old Testament when a widow came to Elisha asking for help he asked her “What do you have in the house?” (2 Kings 4:2), God multiplied her small jar of oil so there was enough to cover the debt (2 Kings 4:1-7). The young boy who gave what he could to Andrew the disciple (John 6:8-9), 5 loaves, and 2 fish saw that gift multiplied to feed over 5,000 people (Matthew 14:13-21)! 

What is your rod?

The question is, what is in your hand? What do you have to give? God has given us all different gifts and abilities and equipped us to do what He has called us to do. 

We, like Moses, are quite talented at making excuses and identifying all the areas where we are lacking. While it is good to be aware of your flaws and things that you need to improve or change in your character we mustn’t let that dominate our lives. So maybe you aren’t an extrovert, you can look at those who are and be jealous that you aren’t able to talk to people as easily as they can, or, you can realize that as an introvert you have better listening skills than the ever talkative extrovert (PSA to the extroverts, being talkative is not always a bad thing!!). 

You may be like me, I’m not very creative. Arts and crafts aren’t my thing, I’m more into reading and writing. I look at people like my sister and am in awe! She is very creative and sees the potential for creative expression in things that I never would. Instead of resenting this, I’ve grown to see how wonderfully we can complement each other, when we work together we have great potential because we both bring something different to the table. 

The church is another prime example of this, Paul describes the church as a body in 1 Corinthians 12,

The human body has many parts, but the many parts make up one whole body. So it is with the body of Christ.

Yes, the body has many different parts, not just one part. If the foot says, “I am not a part of the body because I am not a hand,” that does not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear says, “I am not part of the body because I am not an eye,” would that make it any less a part of the body? If the whole body were an eye, how would you hear? Or if your whole body were an ear, how would you smell anything?

But our bodies have many parts, and God has put each part just where he wants it. How strange a body would be if it had only one part! Yes, there are many parts, but only one body. The eye can never say to the hand, “I don’t need you.” The head can’t say to the feet, “I don’t need you.” In fact, some parts of the body that seem weakest and least important are actually the most necessary.

God has given each of us different gifts and abilities for a reason. All of us bring something different to the body of Christ. The enemy will try to make you feel inferior or insignificant because he understands that when one member of the body is missing or nor participating as it should then the entire body suffers.

So what is your “rod”? What is it that you have that you can use for the glory and purposes of God? God used the stick in Moses’ hand to part the Red Sea and facilitate many other signs. What has God given you that He wants to use?

Surrender

This topic is something I’ve been thinking about a lot over the past week or so. There are gifts that God has given me that I’ve realized I have done nothing with. I haven’t been cultivating them for use in His Kingdom. Just because God has given you a specific talent doesn’t mean that you just have to show up and He will use you. You need to put in some effort too. 

There are many talented people in this world. Businessmen and women, singers, politicians. All of them are using their talents, but not all of them are using them the way God intended. Any gift God has given you was not for you to become a millionaire, if you do that’s not a bad thing, but God intends that you will use the abilities you have for the furtherance of His kingdom. 

We must recognize the gifts we have been given and start doing something with them. The first step is to surrender to God, the world will pressure you to use your talents for your own gain. The chance at “fame and fortune” can easily take over your life, but when you have surrendered all to God, laying down your burdens as well as your talents, He will make something beautiful out of your life! 

So, instead of wishing God had placed your neighbor’s rod in your hand take a look at the one He has given you and start using that for His will.