This past week, Pastor Dwight spoke on The Miracle in Your Hand. You can follow the links to listen at:
http://www.iriverchurch.com/#/media. It was good stuff.
We all have something in our hand. For the sermon illustration, it was the little boy who had a small lunch for fish and bread. For some, it's a hammer - you can build, rebuild, repair. Maybe you have a spatula - you can cook for those who are physically hungry and spiritually hungry.
This week, as I've thought over the sermon, it came to me that we have two hands. If a Miracle is in our Hand, what's in the other hand? Is it a tool to complete the miracle? or is it the one thing that will defeat God's work in our life?
In one hand you may hold the tool to change someone's life forever! Compassion for the hurting. Food for the hungry. Friendship for the lonely.
In the other hand, you grip tightly to that which keeps you from using God's gift - desire to be uninvolved. Feeling of inadequacy. Fear of intimacy.
Our church has a ministry for feeding those after a surgery, sickness, tragedy, birth of a child. It's wonderful! The ladies who take care of this are very organized and have computerized it making it so effecient. Our family has been the recipient of this gift several times. And I've provided meals, too. But I never feel good enough! I'm a good cook - no one leaves my table hungry. I've cooked for two college retreats - leftovers were few. But when it comes to cooking food to take to someone else's home, I feel like a reject from "Worse Cooks in America" being asked to guest host "The Martha Stewart Show!"
Today, I see this as a tool of the enemy. I feel inadequate, I'm paralyzed from action.
Maybe in your hand is a secret that no one knows. Not your best friend. Not your worse enemy. Just you and God. It's heavy. It's a noose around your neck. It binds your hands together so you cannot work. It totally incapacitates you. It's the leverage the enemy has against you and it is keeping you from moving forward in God's kingdom! Share it! Bring it in the open! If it's not a secret, the enemy cannot use it against you! There is freedom!
I feel more on this subject coming. This is a start. Ask yourself, "What's in my other hand to prevent a miracle from happening?"
