WATER OFF A DUCK’S BACK

Acts 28:3&5 But when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks and laid them on the fire, a viper came out because of the heat, and fastened on his hand. v.5 But he shook off the creature into the fire and suffered no harm.

No doubt, over the course of our lives, we will have had people say things about us, or to us, that have discouraged or maybe badly hurt us. The enemy will use people to do that, even within a church context which can be especially hurtful! We need to remember not everyone who goes to church is in tune with the Holy Spirit all the time and they, and we, can get it wrong sometimes, including me.

But I keep getting this expression “like water off a duck’s back” running through my head and I felt the Lord was saying we can be like the Apostle Paul when he was bitten by a viper. He ‘shook it off’ into the fire. He didn’t let it stick or hang on to him. He physically shook it off into a place where it couldn’t continue to hurt him, into the fire. He burnt it up! It was just like water off a duck’s back!🙂

Can I encourage you if you’ve had some hurtful words spoken over you, maybe only yesterday or even from years ago, to realise that they are burnt up by God’s words that tell us He loves us with an everlasting love, that He accepts us in His beloved Son the Lord Jesus and He considers you to be one of His greatest treasures. All the hurtful, damaging words are burnt up by His words ‘you are blameless and without fault in His sight’. (Col.1:22-23/Eph 1:4) 

Let’s do as the Lord’s Prayer says, and go one step further and forgive whoever sinned against us. God has forgiven us our many failings, and we can forgive others too.🙂

So God’s word to us today is to shake off what that snake has said or done that bit us, and let it be like water off a duck’s back. See it fall off you, burnt up, in the light of God’s approval and acceptance and His great love for you. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.