Francis Schaeffer in his book "No Little People" uses the illustration of the rod of Moses.
Moses was a shepherd for forty years. Every day he went to work and used his shepherd's rod to do his shepherd's stuff. This piece of wood was a stick form a tree and had been dead for at least forty years. When Moses met God at the burning bush; Moses objected to God's call by saying "How will they know you have sent me?". God answered with a very interesting question, a question I believe He asks us all. That question was this "What is in your hand?". All Moses had to offer God was a shepherds rod - a dead stick of wood. Throughout the ministry of Moses God used that dead stick of wood to defeat demonic powered magicians, bring the plagues on Egypt, cross the Red Sea, defeat the greatest army in the world, bring water from rock and much more. Almost everything God asked Moses to do was done through the dead stick of wood that was in his hand.
I love the thought that God only expects from me what I have to give. It reminds me of the boy with the loves and the fishes. Jesus used his little lunch to feed over 5000 people. God took a dead stick of wood consecrated to Him and did great and mighty things with it. What can He do with a person who is completely consecrated to Him? He doesn't ask us to climb a mountain, be better, or be something other than what we are. He never ask for what we do not have to give. He challenges us to live for Him and do His work. When we say "how?" , He asks us the same question He asked Moses: "What is in your hand?".
