Originally published Monday, 25 January 2016.
These Hands
I look down,
what’s in these hands?
How can You use this lack?
You place staff in them and turn it to snake.
Demonstrating Your power, and my soul it quakes.
You use the simple to shame the wise.
You remove blinders from scaly eyes.
You unstop ears. You level shaky ground.
You use ordinary hands to build, to help, to comfort, to lift.
You’re using her and You’re using him to escort the hurting to a safe haven. You’re using them and You’re using me to minister to little ones, to help them see.
Sometimes it doesn’t feel like much, to offer these limbs as healing touch.
Yet, You laid on limb of tree and used pierced body to set us free.
You ask us to lift these palms to You—to stop stealing and hoarding and building a kingdom for self. You have molded and crafted and shaped these hands to do kingdom work.
It’s simple yet sacred work.
Piece by piece, brick by brick we build upon the Rock and the gates of hell cannot prevail as we each do our part.
All, do your part.
And lean on Him who calls the shots,
He’s entrusted good work to you.
You might be home-bound, but don’t spend your soul biding your time.
Use your days to pound the pavement in prayer and plead for the lost to turn and be bound to a Heavenly Home.
Pray, don’t waste the day.
You might be seasoned in years, but you’re not too old to be renewed day by day as you spread His joy with smiles, with gratitude and a timely word for another. It matters more than you think. It might make all the difference.
I dare you to try.
You might feel invisible as you wash dishes, change diapers and forfeit sleep to comfort tiny lives. You wonder what difference you’re making amidst the messy mundane. Where’s the majesty in that? Yet, you’re participating in a mighty calling that has the power to change generations.
You are fulfilling a humbling role that is highly honored in the sight of the King.
You are seen.
Or you might be a sitting strong in the workforce, tempted to depend on your own know-how, education and expertise. But don’t forget we’re all desperate for Him and dependent on His ability to do even one good thing. With power comes great responsibility and you’re in this position only by His grace, for such a time as this.
Don’t forget that.
You might be out of work and wondering what to do with idle hands. There is work for you to do, even now, as you open hands before Him in surrender and open His Word to point the way. It might look different than you think, but it is no less holy.
Get up, get dressed and follow His steps.
Labor well—whether at home, at work, in the hospital or in the church.
Be faithful with this day, and tomorrow and then the next and it will add up to a faithful life.
You won’t always get it right, but keep going. Don’t give up. Don’t lose heart. He’s got you.
Use the hands He has given you to do good, His good.
It’s for His glory but it’s also so that we have something to give to those in need.
Are you passing by the poor?
Are you judging your neighbor?
Are you keeping for yourself what He’s asked you to give?
Those hands, look at them.
Open them up, palms to sky and surrender them afresh.
O God, we trust You’re good, whether we’re living in lack or luxury or that in-between place.
Use us to do good work, out of our love for You, Who is Good. Not to earn Your favor but because You have placed the favor of Your mercy upon us. And we are glad.
Forgive us for hurting with these hands.
Cleanse us from dirtying these hands with sin.
Cover our hands with Your gloves of grace,
And anoint them to work as unto You and to give as You lead to those in need.
We look down,
what’s in these hands?
The power to build, to help, to comfort, to lift.
We lift these hands to You God.
Thank You for piercing Your hands for us.
That we might be forgiven
and then arise and build with these, Your hands.
*This Spoken Word poem was first published on katiemreid.com (you can view the video of Katie delivering it over there).
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