Spring up, O well! Sing about it, about the well that the princes dug, that the nobles of the people sank—the nobles with scepters and staffs.

Numbers 21:17-18

Have you ever had a job or a project you needed to do, but you just didn’t seem to have the right tools or equipment? This seems to have been the situation in which the Israelites found themselves. They were in the wilderness, being led by Moses, and were in need of water. They came to the little village or area called Beer, and the Bible says, “the Lord said to Moses, “Gather the people together and I will give them water.” The above verse was sung about the well that came into being on that day. When they came there, however, they had nothing to dig with. So it says the princes and nobles decided to use what they had—their scepters and walking sticks. We don’t know all the details—just that they dug with their walking sticks, and God provided and blessed them with water.

How many times have we lost an opportunity or a blessing because we thought we were not able to accomplish something? Maybe we decided that we just didn’t have the right tools or equipment. God never asks us to do something that He will not give us the ability to do. We remember when God asked Moses to lead the Israelites out of Egypt, he hesitated and came up with excuses why he couldn’t do it. First, he complained about not being able to talk very well, and then he begged God to send someone else. God, however, didn’t let Moses off the hook that easily. He provided Moses’ brother Aaron to help Moses say what needed to be said. I believe God would have given Moses everything he needed if he had accepted the call at the beginning.

Paul wrote, “I can do all this through him who gives me strength” (Philippians 4:13). What do we have that we can use to dig a well from which others can drink? Even if we don’t have what we think we need, if God is asking us to do something for Him, He knows that we either already have what we need in His power to accomplish it or we need to just trust that He will provide what we need at just the right moment.

We read in Ephesians that “we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” (Ephesians 2:10). If He’s prepared good works for us to do, He will also provide what’s necessary to do it. Here’s a promise to hang on to: God “is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us” (Ephesians 3:20). With that in mind, let us be faithful in using what we have, no matter how little it may seem, to do what we can for God and for others.