“Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungered, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick or in prison, and came unto thee? And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Insomuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”

Mathew 25:37-40

Have you ever been made aware of a need and wanted to help but just didn’t know what to do or even how to do it? I sort of feel that way now with all of the needs that are in our world today. The front line responders are doing awesome jobs and we are all indebted to them. I love all the social media posts where people are ministering to others through the means of spiritual music, Bible verses, meditations on Scripture and even light-hearted antics that cause us to laugh heartedly. While this medium is so helpful, not everyone is comfortable with communicating this way yet their desire, like mine, is to help. Then what is the answer to this dilemma? I love the question God posed to Moses in Exodus 4:2 in the account of the “burning bush” experience. You remember in chapter 3, God revealed to Moses that he was to be the one to deliver the people of Israel out of Egypt. At that point, Moses started arguing with God. He gave all the reasons he could think of as to why he couldn’t do it. God’s response was, “What is that in your hand?” Moses answered, “A rod”. The rod Moses had in his hand was a plain ordinary shepherd’s staff…nothing special. It was a tool that Moses used every day to accomplish the work he was given to do.

Consider the women in the New Testament who were followers of Jesus during his earthly ministry. Women like: Mary Magdalene of whom Jesus cast out 7 demons; Mary the mother of James the Less; Salome the wife of Zebedee and mother of James and John; Joanna the wife of Herod’s servant, Chuza; Susanna who was probably a personal friend of Luke. WOW… just think about the mixed bag of personalities and backgrounds represented here! Yet they all used whatever they had available to them to help meet the needs of Jesus and His disciples. Luke 8:1-3 tells us that they gave out of their own substance to supply food and finances. They just used whatever was in their hands.

Many of you are already making a huge difference in the lives of others during this time of uncertainty and you don’t even realize it…
• Moms are doing what moms do: cooking, cleaning, teaching, organizing, encouraging, wiping tears, Ad infinitum. Priceless.
• People are going out of their way to check on the elderly and hurting.
• People are giving of their own finances to help others who have lost their jobs by cooking meals, sending groceries, ordering carry-out for others etc.
• People are sharing ideas of how to make daily life a little more functional with the new normal we have.
• People are sending notes of encouragement and gifts of love.
• Fervent prayers are being offered to God as never before.

This is the first and second commandment on display. When we serve others, we are serving God because when we love others we love God.

So…this is my question to you today. What is in your hands? Just surrender it… Don’t sweat it. Be available and watch God multiply it for good in the lives of others. He can take an ordinary “tool” and display His power in ways we can not even imagine.

Written by Lynn Gleiser.
To contact Lynn, leave us a comment, email comments@thebeautifulspirit.org, or message us on Facebook.