Today I want us to sit and think about those situations that are intentionally disastrous but actually lead to great opportunities. Let me queue you up to where we find our quiet time today. Paul, Luke and company were shipwrecked and drifted on an Island they didn’t even know about. He says they only knew its name after they drifted there. As soon as they get out of the water, it starts to rain. They were trying to avoid anymore water– they were shipwrecked! Now the people of the village helped them start a fire and look what happens next:
3 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. 4 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. 5 He, however, shook off the creature into the fire and suffered no harm. (Acts 28:3-5 ESV)
A viper wraps itself on Paul’s arm. Vipers are poisonous snakes and when they bite, it hurts. So when a viper wraps itself onto you, you would do what Paul did and kick it off of you. In doing so, you are usually bitten and it hurts a lot, if it doesn’t kill you. The point of saying all of this is to say this: sometimes the situations we find ourselves in are viperous. It will hurt when we get it off us if we don’t die from it first. But when we do get past and over that situation because that’s what we should be doing when we’re in a bad situation. Don’t just sit and dwell there wondering if it will slither away from you– you need to shake it off as hard as you can to get yourself out and about and going. Well, those situations can actually end up being provisional for you. God is in the business of using viperous situations for His provisions. I’m not talking about the viperous circumstance you find yourself in because you caused the viper to latch onto you and bite. You know what I’m talking about, those instances when you did something stupid that caused your perdictament. I’m talking about those unavoidable situations that happened as a result of you being shipwrecked in a place unknown to you by no fault of your own and circumstances outside of your control. When in the process, you are trying to dry off and find shelter, you find yourself trapped between the fire and a viper’s bite. God will use that to provide provisions. In the passage we looked at, Luke concludes that the viperous circumstance was provisional– it gave them an opportunity to heal the sick and spread the gospel when they didn’t even intend to. Their mission was accomplished even though they didn’t know it. It was a result of the viperous circumstance. Where are the provisions hiding in your viperous circumstance?
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