Shake it off! - Daily Devotional November 12th, 2009

Daily Bible Reading - Ezra 8, Hosea 9, Acts 28

Shake it off!

I know I write about Paul alot but as a man who God used to write 2/3 of the New Testament I think there is alot we can learn from him. In Acts 28 Paul is shipwrecked with all of the other people on his ship and as they find themselves on an island an interesting story ensues. Look here at Acts 28:1-6, "After we were brought safely through, we then learned that the island was called Malta. The native people showed us unusual kindness, for they kindled a fire and welcomed us all, because it had begun to rain and was cold. When Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks and put them on the fire, a viper came out because of the heat and fastened on his hand. When the native people saw the creature hanging from his hand, they said to one another, 'No doubt this man is a murderer. Though he has escaped from the sea, Justice has not allowed him to live.'He, however, shook off the creature into the fire and suffered no harm. They were waiting for him to swell up or suddenly fall down dead. But when they had waited a long time and saw no misfortune come to him, they changed their minds and said that he was a god". Here Paul is not in the best of situations, wrongfully imprisoned, shipwrecked on an island, and now getting bit by a snake. I guess when it rains it pours.

Paul in these situations simply did what he knew to do. As you look at this story he is on this island because he did what he knew to do, swim for shore. Once they were on the island it began to rain and it was probably cold so he simply went and grabbed wood to help get a fire going to keep dry and warm. Then something unfortunate took place, a snake from the wood came out and bit him and Paul, "shook off the creature into the fire" and it goes on to say that Paul suffered no injury or harm. Paul reacted how any of us would probably react, he shook that hand as hard as he could until the snake flew off into the fire. Paul did not see the snake on his hand and say, "hey guys look at this snake, look how big it is", or, "wow this really hurts, look how bad it is". Paul simply did what he knew to do and he shook that hand so that the viper came flying off.

You and I need to take a lesson from this today and do what we know to do. We probably won't be bit by any snakes anytime soon (but if you do, shake really hard) but there are many other things in life that come along to harm us. When this happens, whether it is a friend talking behind our back, someone not receiving our advice, an offense that has occurred or a leader letting you down with bad choices we need to shake it off! Too many times though we when we get hurt, let down or offended we want to run around to everyone and talk about it. We want to say, "hey look how bad this hurt me" or "can you believe this person did that to me". What we need to understand is that just like in Paul's case we are not responsible with what happens after we are bitten/hurt we are only responsible with how we handle the thing while it is biting us. It would have done Paul no good to yell at the snake, call the snake names, talk about how mean the snake was or run around showing the snake to everyone. The only thing that Paul could do is shake it off and let God deal with the rest. This is what you and I need to do when things happen in our life as well, we need to just shake it off and let God deal with it.

So think about it today. What things are biting you? What things do you need to just shake off? Just like that viper the longer they hang on to you the more deadly they become. But by shaking them off they fall into the fire and you are saved. So shake some things off today and let God deal with the rest.

Tomorrows Bible Reading - Ezra 9, Hosea 10, Colossians 1

Dream Big
Ben