Personal Ability

 Personal Ability

The LORD said to him, “What is that in your hand?” And he said, “A staff.” Then He said, “Throw it on the ground.” So he threw it on the ground, and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from it. But the LORD said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand and grasp it by its tail”—so he stretched out his hand and caught it, and it became a staff in his hand.

EXODUS 4.2-4

When God sent Moses into the desert, he lost everything he had known. The only way he still provided for himself was as a shepherd. It was his last thin strand of self-sufficiency. His shepherd’s staff represented his ability to survive, even in the hardest of times.

So God did what He always does when He wants to work through a person’s life in a miraculous way. He had Moses throw his staff down. We cannot rely on our own ability if we are to fulfill our divine destiny in life.

When Moses threw the staff down, it became a snake. Dependence on our ability instead of God is always poisonous. However, once Moses saw that fact, God told him to pick the staff back up. It’s not the ability itself that is wrong. Our mistake comes when we don’t depend on God.

God will use your ability for His glory, but never forget that it is He, not the ability you possess, who equips you.