Be as Snakes and Doves

Good morning, Father, thank You for a better night’s sleep! May today be as You would have it. May I be used by You to further Your kingdom, to touch people’s lives as only You can. Amen.

Matthew 10:16-20 (<<click the green)

Snakes….just the word makes a shudder run up many people’s spine! It makes me smile to think of the response last month’s post got that pictured a big green snake!

Lord, once again You refer to snakes but this time You call us to “be as shrewd as snakes”. What? This reference to snakes has always stymied me. I’m sure to some degree that snakes get a bum rap but that doesn’t really change my perception of them. They seem to personify evil much more than good. Yet in this case, Lord, You call us to imitate them.

I found the following in the NIV Quest Study Bible Notes,

In the ancient Near East, the serpent was a symbol of cunning whose wisdom was worth emulating. Most likely Jesus was quoting a proverb familiar to his listeners.

So we are to be cunning and wise as we go into the world but You balance that with a command to be “harmless as doves”. The Amplified Bible fleshes that out a bit more by saying we are to be, “innocent as doves [have no self-serving agenda].”

We are to be instruments of love, serving others, but You were no stranger to what You were sending us into. In Your prayer to Your Heavenly Father prior to Your arrest, trial and crucifixion, You prayed for us…

¹³“I am coming to you [the Father] now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. ¹⁴I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. ¹⁵My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. ¹⁶They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. ¹⁷Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. ¹⁸As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. ¹⁹For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.” John 17:13-18

Lord Jesus, You have sent me out into the world, calling me to be cunning and wise but also very much full of Your love and compassion. May I set apart – sanctified – made pure – for Your intentions. As I said at the beginning, may I be used by You to further Your kingdom, to touch people’s lives as only You can. Amen.

Mar 19^th, 2018, Mon, 6:27 am