What's in your hands?

I wrote recently about an Easter weekend sermon we heard about our talents or abilities and how God can use whatever is in our hands to accomplish his will.

The sermon’s basis was Exodus 4:1-5, where God asked Moses, “What’s that in your hand?” after which God proceeded to use Moses’ hands, with and without the rod, and other people’s hands throughout the book of Exodus to show he could accomplish his will through people.

I finished my article by writing about Jesus stretching out his hands on the cross to bring about our salvation and because of that, we can reach out and find God (John 17:1-5; 10:14-18; 19:17-18; 20:19-29; Acts 17:24-31).

Once we find God, our salvation is conditionally secure. While some will say our salvation is completely secure, it’s only completely secure as long as we live faithfully, continuing to abide in God’s love through continued obedience as our expression of love to him (John 10:10, 27-30; 15:1-10; 2 Peter 3:17-18).

That is, for those who by faith are shielded by God’s power, the inheritance through salvation unto eternal life is kept in heaven, where nothing can corrupt it (1 Peter 1:3-9; 2 Peter 1:1-11).

The goal of our faith is our salvation, and as long as we’re faithful in God’s kingdom, we are receiving that goal (Revelation 2:10; Colossians 1:9-14, 21-23; you can read the intervening verses in Colossians 1, but they don’t omit necessary information for this point on our faithfulness; always, always, always read the Scriptures I cite and any associated Scriptures you find to interpret the Bible by the Bible and verify what I write — Acts 17:11).

Our faith requires active obedience; otherwise, our faith cannot save us (James 1:21-27; 2:14-26; Hebrews 11:8-10; Acts 3:36-41; 6:7; 1 Peter 1:13-25). We have a great treasure guaranteed to us because of our faith, but we must be faithful to the calling, which also can increase the God’s blessings to us and his expectations of us (Ephesians 1:3-14; 1 Corinthians 4:2; Philippians 2:12-16; 3:15-16; Luke 12:47-48; Matthew 25:28-30).

The calling involves faithfulness in our way of life, which not only includes obedience to God but setting the example of godliness to other Christians for their edification and to the world to attract them to the grace of God in salvation at which time we can answer their questions about our Christian life and how to attain that for themselves (1 Timothy 4:12; Titus 2:1-14; 1 Peter 2:11-12; 3:15-16).

This is how most Christians hold out the Word of Life to others. As with our material possessions, the use of our spiritual blessings is in our hands (Acts 5:4; 1 Corinthians 9:4; Joshua 14:14-15). We are to use all we have with all our might to do whatever we can do (Ecclesiastes 9:10; 11:1-2; Matthew 6:19-21; Luke 16:1-12; Psalm 14:1-2; 37:23-26).

Are you faithfully using what’s in your hand to serve God? It’s really not all that hard to obey and abide in his love (1 John 5:1-3).

Leonard Lauriault is a member of the Church of Christ in Logan who writes about faith for the Quay County Sun. Contact him at [email protected].