ODJ: turning toward the healer
Make a replica of a poisonous snake and attach it to a pole. All who are bitten will live if they simply look at it! (v.8).
READ: Numbers 21:4-9
Open, Lord, my eyes that I may see. Open, Lord, my ears that I may hear. Open, Lord, my heart and my mind that I may understand. So shall I turn to you and be healed.
—traditional prayer Each year around Easter, my wife and I choose something for the other to give up. Last year, Miska surrendered chocolate, but for me she chose . . . fear. That was a difficult one—it’s not like you can clean fear out of the cupboard. I discovered, however, that my fear is one way (among many) that I obsess over myself, getting lost in my inner world, deciphering all my valid (or invalid) feelings. All my inner-gazing keeps me from looking up to Jesus, the only One able to heal my distress.
During Israel’s wandering years, the people complained against God, believing they would “die . . . in the wilderness” (Numbers 21:5). Their temptation, as usual, was to take matters in their own hands, to forge a forbidden alliance or construct a false god or concoct plans for a return to Egypt.
But God, in righteous wrath, used poisonous snakes to bring His people to their senses. God had Moses construct a bronze serpent and raise it high on a pole. After being bitten by snakes, the people simply had to “look at the bronze snake and be healed!” (v.9). If they looked to themselves or to their neighbor—even to Moses—they would die. But if the people would look upward to the gift from their God, they would gain life.
The temptation to look inward offers quite an allure. It makes us feel as if we’re in control. This seductive path sabotages our humble posture of coming—broken and in need of mercy—to our Redeemer. Jesus has come because we are bankrupt, not because we are managing nicely on our own. —Winn Collier
When are you most tempted to look to yourself for help? What would happen if you looked to Jesus instead?
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Loading ...ODB: a powerful word
January 24, 2010
READ: Hebrews 4:12-13
The Word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword. —Hebrews 4:12
When a teenager named Poh Fang learned about Jesus’ love for her and received Him as her Savior, her parents weren’t sure about the merits of Christianity. So they sent her older sister with her to church to keep an eye on her. But something happened that they didn’t expect. The powerful Word of God penetrated the heart of the older sister, and she accepted Jesus as her Savior as well.
The psalmist said of the Word of God, “Your precepts . . . have given me life” (Ps. 119:93). That’s the testimony of Poh Fang and her sister and of all who know Christ as Savior. His Word is “powerful . . . and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart” (Heb. 4:12).
God’s Word shows us our sin and its consequences: “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23); “the wages of sin is death” (6:23). It tells us of God’s love and salvation: “God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, . . . made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved)” (Eph. 2:4-5). And it gives wisdom for daily living: “Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” (Ps. 119:105).
Thank You, Lord, for Your powerful Word, which gives us life and direction for daily living. — Anne Cetas
Many books inform, but only one transforms— the Bible.
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