Making The Ordinary Extraordinary I 平凡中的不平凡

 

{Making The Ordinary Extraordinary}

What would you say if I told you there’s a simple way to turn ordinary things into something extraordinary? This often overlooked principle is found throughout the Bible, but the story of Moses’ shepherd’s rod is a good place to start.

In Exodus 4:2, God asks Moses the same question I believe He’s asking you today: “What is that in your hand?” All Moses had in his hand at that point was a simple wooden shepherd’s rod—certainly nothing extraordinary.

When you look at what you have in your hand, it might seem as insignificant as the piece of wood Moses had been using to care for his sheep. How could God use something so ordinary?

God was commissioning Moses for the daunting task of delivering over a million Israelites from slavery in Egypt. And all he had in his hand was the wooden staff he had used for 40 years to tend his flocks of sheep. It was just an ordinary piece of wood. An inanimate object. A tool of Moses’ trade.

Yet something amazing happened when Moses obeyed the Lord’s instruction to lay down his rod, a sign of surrender and relinquishment. Exodus 4:20 says this unimpressive wooden pole was transformed into “the rod of God.” Endued with God’s supernatural power, Moses’ rod now was able to part the Red Sea (Exodus 14:21), bring water out of a rock (Exodus 17:5-6), and gain supernatural victory over enemy armies (Exodus 17:8-13).

Do you see how powerful this message is for you and me? Like Moses, we’re being called to do great things…supernatural things…things much bigger than we could ever accomplish without divine assistance.

Yet too often we think our problem is that we lack some important ingredient or resource needed for success. “If only I had this or that…” we complain.

But notice that God wasn’t asking Moses to give Him something he didn’t already have. Instead, He asked Moses, as He’s asking you today…

“What’s that in your hand?”

Moses had been carrying around that ordinary piece of wood for many years, and nothing dramatic had happened as a result. But after he surrendered the wooden rod from his hand to the Lord’s hand, it became a powerful tool for an extraordinary life.