Acts 28:4-5 The people of the island saw it (a poisonous snake) hanging from his hand and said to each other, "A murderer, no doubt! Though he escaped the sea, justice will not permit him to live." v.5 But Paul shook off the snake into the fire and was unharmed.
It's not every day you get bitten by a snake especially after you've just been battered by a tempest and shipwrecked on an island! That is exactly what happened to the Apostle Paul when he was gathering wood for a fire.
He and the sailors on board had all been through a terrible storm at sea which had gone on and on, being beaten relentlessly by the gale force winds day and night so much so that the sailors had despaired of surviving. But God had told Paul they would all survive.
Have you been through some storms lately, which have gone on and on and made you feel like despairing as well? Maybe you've survived but now you feel like you've been bitten by something else and you feel like enough is enough!!
If so, can I encourage you to be like the Apostle Paul, who refused to let himself get rattled by this latest attack. He shook it off into the fire and he didn't suffer any bad effects from it and neither will you.
There are times we have to learn to shake things off that are trying to come on us. It may not be easy but with God's help we can learn to put our foot down and say "'NO!' I am not receiving this, I take authority over it and tell it to loose it's hold on me. It has no right to my body. I refuse to fear it and I refuse to allow it to take a hold. I'm a child of God and He's given me authority over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means harm me. (Luke 10:19) I resist it and it has to flee in the name of Jesus!"
James 4:7 So be subject to God. Resist the devil (stand firm against him) and he will flee from you. God has told us very clearly we have to do the resisting. It doesn't say He'll do it for us. Sometimes the enemy tests us to see if we'll bother to resist him or not and my prayer is that we stand our ground and tell him to go in Jesus' name. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment