What’s in Your Hand?

Gideon only had 300 poorly equipped soldiers.

David only had five smooth stones.

The widow in Zarephath only had “a handful of flour and a little oil…”

The prophet’s widow only had “a little oil.”

Jonah only had a sermon.

Zerubbabel only had a word from the Lord.

The little boy only had five little barley loaves and two dried fish.

When you think about your life, your family, your calling or ministry, what is your “only”? What limitation do you see in yourself, your experience, or your circumstances, to God doing great things in and through you?

One thing is for sure, you can’t always trust the people around you to have the right perspective.

Gideon’s peers would have agreed with him that his tribe was the weakest and he was the least. David’s peers would not have given him favorable odds to defeat the giant with no armor and unconventional weapons. The neighbors around the widow of Zarephath were in the same predicament she was in; suffering from over three years of drought. The prophet’s widow was about to lose her sons because of a debt she could never repay. Zerubbabel faced the impossible task of rebuilding the City of God with few resources and little help. And the little boy had the only food available for miles. The disciples said as much.

Another thing is for sure.

There seemed to be no visible help on the horizon, in the natural.

The widow of Zarephath said as much when Elijah asked her to make him some bread. She looked at her meagre resources and told the prophet that she was just getting ready to make some bread out of her little flour and oil, eat it with her son, and then die.

What possible good are five little stones against a giant, covered from head to foot with armor?

How can 300 soldiers possibly go against 120,000 Midianites?

What possible good could five barley loaves and two dried fish do, in the face of a crowd that the disciple’s said would take a year’s salary to feed?

But, in every case, God was preparing to do a miracle.

Here is the secret!

In every case, God used the very thing that seemed so inadequate to everyone as the mustard seed of His miracle! The surrender to the Lord of the very thing that seemed so inadequate was the beginning of God’s powerful and miraculous intervention.

In other words, the miracle looked just like the meager provisions that had seemed so inadequate…only it had God in it. It’s like the song, “Little is much when God is in it.”

Gideon’s 300 destroyed the army of 120,000 Midianites.

Only 1 of David’s five stones took down the giant.

The widow’s little flour and oil fed the whole family and the prophet until the drought ended.

Jonah’s sermon turned a whole pagan city to God.

Zerubbabel’s “word” from the Lord moved mountains and completed the temple.

The little boy’s loaves and fish are actually what fed five thousand, just counting the men.

The miracle looked just like the meagre provisions!

In every one of these situations God wanted to show Himself mighty. In fact, during the arduous process of whittling Gideon’s army down to 300, God actually told Gideon it was, “in order that Israel may not boast against Me that her own strength saved her…”

So… what’s in your hands? What looks too meagre for God to use? What is it about your life that convinces you God could never use you?

Give it to Him. That is exactly what He is going to use to bring about a miracle. Trust the word of the Lord to you, and see if He won’t take your very weaknesses and use them to slay the giants around you that are mocking the living God and His purposes in you!