Back in the old days when I was a kid growing up, neighbors borrowing sugar from one another was quite the norm; as I was one of those neighbors.
Neighbors didn’t think twice about asking for milk, eggs, flour or anything else missing from the grocery list either, as cooking from scratch was as common as a Betty Crocker cookbook, a staple in most households back then; the old days as my grandchildren remind me.
With measuring utensils in tote for a “cup of this” and a “cup of that”, those persons living next door or across the street shared from what they had on hand with pleasure, always beckoning you inside if you had a moment to spare.
Around the kitchen table these simple ingredients from the cupboard would find themselves stirred into a bowl of conversation, sending next door neighbors back home with leftovers of friendship packed to the full line in Tupperware containers.
While borrowing a “cup of sugar” from your next door neighbor is a memory from the old days, God is still doing ministry around the kitchen table, using what we have on hand to touch the hearts of those seated before us.
God longs to take the ordinary and perform the extraordinary with what we have on hand.
God called Moses to lead the children of Israel into the Land of Promise.
Doubting his inadequacies Moses questioned the Lord’s call as many do today, yet God proposes the same question to us as He did to Moses,
“What is that in your hand?”…
Exodus 4:2 NIV
The staff in Moses’ hand was transformed into a snake then back into a staff as a sign to others that Moses indeed was called to lead the Israelite’s from their bondage’s.
(Exodus 4:3-5)
Jesus multiplied a little boy’s lunch of five loaves and two fish to feed the multitude of five thousand.
(Matthew 14:13-21)
A woman’s jar of oil was multiplied into many containers and sold to settle her debt.
(2 Kings 4:1-7)
This same God wants to perform miracles with…
“What is that in your hand?”…
Exodus 4:2 NIV
A simple cup of coffee might minister to a lonely person through
Available time you have on hand.
A cup of sugar might be a spoken word in due season that is…
… Sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.
Proverbs 16:24 NIV
Soothing and comforting…
As a mother comforts her child…
Isaiah 66:13 NIV
A measure of flour might serve those dying inside,
A meal of sustenance and great hope that Jesus,
He is “… the bread of life.”…
John 6:48 NIV
What do you have on hand that God longs to multiply for the hurting?
What do you have on hand that can be shared with someone else in need?
Our pantries have plenty enough for those neighbors who unexpectedly knock on our heart for “a cup full”.
Forgetting not the lost, those desperate for Christ’s life-giving love, whose measure for them overflows at the cross.
God wants to take the ordinary we have on hand and do the extraordinary.
God wants to use our weak inadequacies to demonstrate how strong He is.
When He simply asks the question…
“What is that in your hand?”… Exodus 4:2 NIV
Apples of Gold Encouragement 