What Is in Your Hand?
- Jack Selcher
- Jun 23
- 3 min read
Updated: Jun 25
I read Exodus 4 for my devotions on June 23, 2025. “But Moses protested again, “What if they won’t believe me or listen to me? What if they say, ‘The Lord never appeared to you’?” Then the Lord asked him, “What is that in your hand?” “A shepherd’s staff,” Moses replied. “Throw it down on the ground,” the Lord told him. So Moses threw down the staff, and it turned into a snake! Moses jumped back” (Exodus 4:1-3 NLT).
Many reject Christian teaching. They think Christianity is a psychological crutch that Christians lean on to deal with their insecurities and fears. They don’t believe in supernatural reality.
For Freud, God was a psychological projection to insulate people from a reality they can’t cope with on their own, a figment of their imagination. Robert Pirsig, an American writer and philosopher, said, “When one person suffers from a delusion, it’s called insanity. When many people suffer from a delusion, it’s called religion.”1 God’s comeback is that when many people suffer from the delusion that He doesn’t exist, it’s called foolishness (Psalm 14:1).
We can’t make others believe that Jesus is God’s Son who came to earth to pay the death penalty for our sins, was buried, and rose again from the dead. Sharing the gospel message with skeptics often has no more impact than a gnat flying into the rock of Gibraltar.
We prove our faith is more than an illusion/delusion of the mind in at least two ways. The first is by demonstrating a supernatural love for other believers. Jesus said, “So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples” (John 13:34-35 NLT). True disciples of Jesus become like their Master, who sacrificed Himself to benefit the church.
In 2024, only a few of the lettuce seeds I planted in plastic, dirt-filled containers germinated into lettuce plants. The problem was that the soil dried too quickly. In North America, the soil of most people’s hearts is too dry for the gospel seed to germinate and bear fruit, but when it does, it profoundly changes a life.
When the gospel germinates, it invariably produces a supernatural, self-sacrificial love for other believers as the result of the Holy Spirit’s control in the Christian’s life.
That love is never alone. As surely as it identifies Jesus’ disciples, so do the other members of the gang to which it belongs, which likewise show Christlikeness. They include joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23).
Unbelievers who knew genuine believers in Jesus before they believed have ample proof of the reality of a changed life that they can reject only through willful blindness.
Another evidence that Christianity is supernatural is our answer to the question, “What is in your hand?” Moses’ staff became a snake to prove that God sent Him. Our “staff” is the supernatural gift or gifts God has given us to build up the church Jesus died for.
They are either ministries of the word of God or service. “God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another. Do you have the gift of speaking? Then speak as though God himself were speaking through you. Do you have the gift of helping others? Do it with all the strength and energy that God supplies” (1 Peter 4:10-11 NLT).
My gift is writing to communicate Christian teachings and applying them to daily life with the energy and strength God supplies. What is yours? What is in your hand? It is persuasive evidence that Jesus has sent you (John 20:21). See additional free spiritual growth resources for Christians. #freediscipleshipresources #freeevangelismresources #freechristianleadershipresources
See free spiritual growth resources for Christians at https://www.christiangrowthresources.com
God has empowered me to write “His Power for Your Weakness—260 Steps Toward Spiritual Strength.” It’s a free, evangelistic, devotional, and discipleship eBook. Pastors have used it in Malawi, Mozambique, and Zambia to lead more than 5,190 people to Christ and teach the basics of Christianity to 12,615 people. I invite you to explore it.
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