DAILY DEVOT IONAL 32
Rev. Vanessa M. Wilson
The LORD said to Moses, “Make a poisonous snake and place it on a pole. Whoever is bitten can look at it and live. - Numbers 21:8
LOOK UP AND LIVE
The Israelites had wandered through the wilderness for forty years. They were almost at their destination when they were redirected to go back to the Red Sea. It was the long way. For many of them that was the tipping point. They were tired of the burden of wandering including the lack of food and water; they were fed-up with the entire experience. They were weary from the unmet expectations of the journey. In addition to personal suffering, they had watched family and friends perish in the wilderness. Repeatedly their hopes had been dashed. Their frustration grew and so did their complaints against Moses and God. It appears that God was frustrated by their continuous complaining and the response was venomous snakes, that killed many of them. This added fear to frustration; it was then that they repented and asked Moses to pray. God heard the prayer of Moses and provided a method of healing – a bronze snake on a poll. To be healed the people had to face what they feared and then look beyond.
The journey to healing, whether, emotional, physical, mental or spiritual is often crooked and full of setbacks. We can become frustrated, fearful, angry and start to complain. As a breast cancer survivor, I have journeyed the road to physical and emotional healing. Along the way, I learned to replace my complaints with prayer, regret with gratitude, and resentment with forgiveness. I looked directly at cancer, the enemy that had taken the lives of family and friends and now sought to destroy me, but my gaze did not stop there. I looked beyond cancer and up to God as my healer, peace, joy and strength. Standing firmly on John 3:14-15, I lifted Christ, by continuing to study, preach, teach and serve. Complaining is an easy first response; but we serve the God who is Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer. Let’s remember the Creator shaped us, Jesus redeemed us and the Holy Spirit sustains us. When we face detours and setbacks let’s ask God to give us transformational grace to shift from complaining about circumstances to the sustaining faith that empowers us to look up to Christ and live.
QUESTIONS:
1. What spiritual disciplines can we use to build resilience to life’s unexpected setbacks?
2. Healing is a journey, what five items would you bring on the journey?
PRAYER:
Dear gracious God, we look to you as we travel a healing journey full of setbacks, detours and unexpected delays. Please give us the ability to look beyond past hurt, rejection, illness and malady and see your hand in every aspect of our lives. Give us the grace to forgive ourselves and others. Allow us to experience the incarnational power that resurrects and restores. Increase our capacity to love ourselves, our neighbors and You as we Look Up and Live. Amen.