Maximizing What’s In Your Hands

As Christians, we strongly believe in the power of prayer. Not only is it a time to communicate with God and give thanks, but it is also a time where we make our requests known to Him. In 1Thessalonians 5:17, we are told to pray without ceasing and Mark 11:24 states that whatsoever we ask for in prayer, we should believe that we have received it, and it will be ours. This demonstrates the importance and effectiveness of prayer in our lives. But have you ever found yourself consistently praying for something and feel like your prayers have not been answered? When we feel our prayers haven’t been answered, sometimes we believe that what we seek is not God’s will for us. Other times we believe that we may not have prayed hard and long enough. However, it is important to realize that sometimes this may not be the case. It may just be that the answer to your prayer is within your reach and God is waiting for you to maximize what He has already put in your hands.

There are times when we are focused on receiving the new that we forget God can equally use the old to answer our prayers or meet our needs. We think the new is the answer we seek whereas God is not done using what we may consider the old in our lives. What do I mean by this? Let us look at the story of the Widow’s Olive Oil in 2 Kings 4.

This story starts off with a woman who had just become a widow. Her husband, a servant of Prophet Elisha died leaving her and their two sons at the mercy of her husband’s creditors. You see the woman was focused on her situation and on finding a solution to her challenge that she was unable to see the resolution to her problems was within her reach, right within her household. The woman cried out to Elisha for help and in verse 2 of 2 Kings 4, Elisha responds with “How can I help you? Tell me, what do you have in your house?”. As I read this I thought to myself that perhaps when we pray for issues to be resolved in our lives or when we make a request to God, our mindset should not just be about receiving new answers but looking inwards first to see what God has already given us to meet those needs.

How the widow responded to Elisha is similar to how some of us might have responded. She responded stating “Your servant has nothing there at all, except a small jar of olive oil”. The solution to her problem lied in something she had and she was familiar with. Little did she know that the small jar she had could be transformed into a mini-business that she could use to pay her debt and earn a living. You see as she was in search of answers to her problem she belittled what she already had and failed to maximize it. Sometimes the answer to our prayers might not be something new and unseen, it might be that we need to take a look at what we already have and let God use it in a new way. But how can He use it if we do not even choose to acknowledge it? Sometimes God can speak through other people to help us realize this but many can often dismiss the idea or even doubt that it will ever work.

There are many examples in the Bible of people who were able to maximize what was already in their hands to achieve their goal or solve a problem. One of the prime examples is when Jesus fed the 5000 with just 5 loaves of bread and 2 fishes (Matthew 14:13-21). While to the disciples the food was not enough to feed thousands of people who gathered to hear Jesus preach, Jesus saw that he could use the 5 loaves of bread and 2 fishes to solve a problem. He maximized the resources available, everyone ate to their fill and there were leftovers! Jesus maximized the old to produce the new.

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?” Exodus 4:1-2

At the point where Moses doubted himself as he was going to speak to the King about releasing the Israelites from slavery in the land of Egypt, he wanted a sign, something new that God could use to show the King that he was truly sent by God. But God didn’t give him something new, He simply used something that seemed powerless which was already in Moses’s hand (his Shepherd’s staff) to do the job. This demonstrates so perfectly what Paul was saying in 1 Corinthians 1:27 that God chooses “things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise” and “things that are powerless to shame those who are powerful”. Similarly, when Moses was leading the Israelites out of Egypt, at the point where they faced the Red Sea with Pharaoh and the Egyptian soldiers closing in on them, Moses cried out to God. God responded by saying “Why are you crying out to me” (Exodus 14:15).

God wanted Moses to recognize the power of what was already in his hand. Moses failed to identify and maximize what he had in his hand; his Shepherd Staff. God told him to stretch his staff. If we look at the concept of “stretching”, it can mean learning how to work with and maximize the resources you already have. Though Moses’ staff may not have looked big just like the women’s jar of olive oil didn’t look like a lot but remember what seems small can be maximized and used by God to fulfil a purpose and answer our prayers.

Oftentimes God places things in our hands that may not make sense at that particular moment but in the process of time, His intention might be for all those previous deposits to be cultivated into a new thing. So dear reader, whatever you are praying for now, take a moment to look closer at what you might already have and how it can be utilized in a new way. Why seek new resources when you have not utilized the old ones to their full capacity? Ask God to give you wisdom and to help you see what you were not able to see before. He will surely reveal it to you and direct you on what to do.