Neighbor, Love Yourself预览

SIMPLE TOOLS ARE ENOUGH

God is famous for turning a shepherd boy into a giant killer whose weapon of choice was stones and a sling.

He’s known for feeding thousands of people with fish and bread borrowed from a boy’s lunch.

He knocked down Jericho’s walls by telling his people to walk around them thirteen times, and he healed blindness by rubbing spit in people’s eyes.

Watch Jesus work. He doesn’t need a crash cart, adrenaline, or CPR to bring someone back to life. He doesn’t need an operating room or X-rays to make people walk again. The tools Jesus uses for these things are simple phrases like “Come out,” “Get up,” or, in the case of the wild storm on the Sea of Galilee, “Be still.”

Accomplishing big things using simple tools can look like cartoon logic, but the most straightforward tools—a whisper, smooth stones, or a few fish—have divine sophisti­cation when God places them in our hands.

Moses learned this lesson directly from God. “The Lord said to him, ‘What is that in your hand?’ ”(Exodus 4:2). Moses was holding a simple tool, a walking stick, a tool he used a lot. God showed Moses how to turn his walking stick into a snake so Moses could demonstrate God’s power to Pharaoh. Moses used his stick again to turn the Nile into blood because Pharaoh needed more convincing. Moses used the stick to part the Red Sea so the Israelites could escape slavery and, later, to bring water out of a rock so the Israelites wouldn’t die of thirst in the des­ert.

If you need a new vision for your future, start with this truth: God designed us with the ability to do amazing things with simple tools. We can create complex organizations, lasting relationships, and dynamic, healthy families—and we can do all of these with what we have in our hands.

What do you possess that, even though it might seem lacking in value, God can use for your good or the good of others?