Have you figured out yet that life is not perfect? Paul the apostle figured it out quickly in his ministry. In his second letter to the Corinthians, he listed some of the hardships and attacks he had endured in ministering to Jews, Gentiles, and the church.<\/p>\n
Here’s the list:<\/p>\n
Missing from the list is the Acts 28 experience of getting bitten by a viper and the subsequent withholding of care and first aid by those who had recently welcomed him with kindness.<\/p>\n
Life wasn’t fair for Paul; life is likely not going to be fair for you, either. You may get a snakebite. Others may misunderstand your motives. They may shun you or speak evil of you. They may even get others to think you are foolish, subversive, or off.<\/p>\n
Perhaps your passion for Christ is scorned. Perhaps your desire to serve in the Body of Christ is misinterpreted. Perhaps the dream and vision you believe God planted in your heart years ago mocks you in its utter lack of fulfillment.<\/p>\n
Maybe you sit in want while others prosper. Maybe you, in desperate need of divine intervention, see miracles come to pass for your friends. Maybe you keep thinking it’s gotta be my time soon<\/em>, and day after day, you keep hoping\u2014yet see absolutely nothing.<\/p>\n You, my friend, are dealing with a viper bite, and the enemy who hates you is seeking to spread his venom throughout your system.<\/p>\n Let’s look again at what Paul did when that viper struck him. He saw it dangling from the skin on his hand and flung it with all his might into the fire.<\/p>\n He did not deny that the snake was there. You don’t have to deny that the things hitting you are horrific. But Paul didn’t leave the viper on his hand\u2014he forcefully jerked his hand toward the fire and with that momentum, the\u00a0serpent catapulted into the flames. You, too, will have to be forceful with any viper attached to you. You will have to put your foot down and say NO MORE <\/em>to the wiles of the enemy invading your space, and forcefully, by the Word of God, fling it\u2014venom and all\u2014into the fire of God.<\/p>\n What happened after Paul shook the\u00a0snake into the fire? The Bible says he “suffered no harm<\/em>” (Acts 28:5b). What should you<\/em> do after you fling a striking serpent into the fire? Suffer no harm. Venom or not, you have the Bible right to suffer no harm<\/em>! This is where you get to walk by faith and not by sight. I heard that Smith Wigglesworth said it this way: “I don’t ask<\/em> Smith Wigglesworth how he feels; I tell<\/em> Smith Wigglesworth how he feels.” And above all, you trust God who said, “No weapon that is formed against you will prosper<\/em>” (Isaiah 54:17a).<\/p>\n There is<\/em> an antidote for all the venom the enemy can produce. And that Antidote was lifted high on the cross at Calvary. The blood that drained out of Jesus\u2019 veins that day holds the cure for every human, throughout history and for all time.<\/p>\n In the last\u00a0blog entry\u00a0I asked, “What is worse\u2014the poison of the viper or the venom of rejection?” Whatever difficulties you may be facing, whether fleshly, demonic, or the rejection of those who once held you dear, the worst attack is the one in which you forget<\/em> that you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you (see Philippians 4:13).<\/p>\n Therefore,\u00a0do what Paul did so long ago\u2014shake that viper off.\u00a0After that,\u00a0refuse to be moved or boxed in by the faulty perceptions and judgments of others against you\u2014and at the same time\u00a0forgive heartily and hold no grudges. You can do it all<\/em> by fixing your eyes on Jesus, the Antidote and the One who was lifted high for you. And then run<\/em>; run with endurance the race He has set before you.<\/p>\n Never again allow the vipers of life to hold you back.<\/p>\n Dorothy<\/p>\n As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life.\u00a0<\/em>John 3:14-15<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Have you figured out yet that life is not perfect? Paul the apostle figured it out quickly in his ministry. In his second letter to the Corinthians, he listed some of the hardships and attacks he had endured in ministering to Jews, Gentiles, and the church. Here’s the list: Hard labor Imprisonment Beaten times without […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[195,196,197,194,191,160],"class_list":["post-6706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-snakes","tag-as-moses-lifted-up-serpent-in-wilderness","tag-christian-trials","tag-dont-give-up","tag-paul-bit-by-viper","tag-pauls-shipwreck","tag-the-son-of-man-must-be-lifted-up"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6706","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6706"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6706\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6743,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6706\/revisions\/6743"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}