They now use sheep’s blood to produce antivenom for various snake bites. You see, the lamb’s blood causes the poison that the snake injects into its victim to have no deadly power. Let’s say a farmer has a lamb bitten in the face by a snake.

The lamb’s face will swell up, but he will experience no lethal consequences because its blood will begin to produce what is needed to overcome the snake’s bite. The blood of the lamb essentially makes the bite of the snake powerless.

Satan injected sin into the world in the Garden of Eden. He attempted to steal all joy and hope from humanity through his lies of deception and his tactics of temptation. But remember what John the Baptist said as Jesus traversed the rugged pathway along the Jordan River, “Look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29)

Soon after, Jesus was baptized, the hope of humanity sprung up from the waters of the Jordan and splashed into our world. Then, Jesus was taken into the wilderness, and the devil’s temptations tested that hope. Our lives can take similar paths from victory to defeat, and hopefulness to despair. It is part of the human condition to undulate like waves, up and down throughout our lives.

But in the lowest of times, when we apply the blood of Jesus, the precious Lamb of God, to our circumstances, through grace and faith, we can overcome both sin and Satan, and our joy and hope are miraculously restored.

Isaiah 40:31 NIV but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.

What poison is coming against you? What sin has bitten you and won’t let go? What sickness is overtaking you? What pain is trying to take you down? What circumstance is trying to steal your hope? The devil, that Serpent of Old, will sneak into the safety of your garden and clasp his fangs into your skin, injecting you with his venom that seeks to kill, steal, and destroy.

But oh, the blood of Jesus! What a beautiful flow that washes away all the consequences of our sin. In the name of Jesus, apply the blood of the Lamb into your wound and watch as it supernaturally begins to heal. We cannot save ourselves from sickness, pain, depression, confusion, or sin. Only the blood of Jesus saves us from it all!

Revelation 12:11 ESV And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death.

When you feel overwhelmed and reeled from an unexpected bite of the enemy, know that the Lamb can reverse and cancel all the enemy’s evil schemes.

Proverbs 23:18 ESV Surely there is a future, and your hope will not be cut off.

There is healing power in the blood!

I was driving the other day, and while sitting at a red light, I looked on the corner, and a young man was holding and spinning a yellow sign that read, “Everything Must Go.” I suspected this was one of those announcements from a store that is having a big sale or is going out of business. As the light turned green and I pulled away, those three words rattled around in my spirit like a nickel in a tin cup, and I asked myself, “What does the Lord want me to know about those three words?”

As I continued driving, I started to think about some issues in my life, an inventory of things that are out of season, items no one else wants, and old objects that take up the space where new things are meant to be placed. Idols, thoughts, worries, doubts, and questions remain folded on shelves and hanging on racks that should have been removed long ago. I asked the Lord to search me and show me what needs to go, so I have room for everything that will allow him to fulfill his plan and purpose for my life.

Psalm 139:1-6 ESV O Lord, you have searched me and known me! You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it altogether. You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it.

My dear friends, what if you looked at your bitterness and said, “No, you cannot stay because you’re taking up the place where forgiveness should be.” Or, to misery, say, “No, you have to go because this is where joy belongs. What if you spoke to despair and said, “You cannot remain here because hope must be put in your place?”

God showed me through that yellow sign that anything that no longer has value or robs you of your hope must go. As we filter our experiences through the lens of the Word of God, we may realize that we have picked up some habits and patterns we shouldn’t have. Those things steal our joy and prevent us from advancing in our walk with Jesus.

What are those things for you?

I will be honest with you; the past year has been a difficult one for me. I could fill a jar with the salt from tears of worry and weeping. Perhaps you have also faced troubles and sadness this year, and it is hard to feel hope. I like how Max Lucado describes hope in his book God Came Near,

“Hope is not what you’d expect; it is what you would never dream. It is a wild, improbable tale with a pinch-me-I’m-dreaming ending. Hope is not a granted wish or a favor performed; no, it is far greater than that. It is a zany, unpredictable dependence on God, who loves to surprise us from our socks and be there in the flesh to see our reaction.”

THAT is the kind of hope that God longs for you to have. But to possess that ridiculous kind of hope, some things must be removed. It is time to tell the enemy that you have had enough and that he can’t have you any longer. You can break free from what’s no longer helpful and run to the Father; for whom the Son sets free, is free indeed.

Ephesians 3:16-17 NIV I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love,

God has given you too much power and authority to stay in hopelessness any longer.

Let it go!

Romans 8:24-25 ESV For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

One summer day, I was working in my garden, the July sun warming my face, and I was amazed at how much my flowers have grown since spring. It wasn’t that long ago that snow covered the ground in a blanket of white. And as time flies like the wind, blowing through the trees, rustling thick branches, and bending pointed leaves only to disappear as quickly as it arrived, the snow will soon cover the ground again.

My perennials will be buried deep in the cold, hard ground in the winter months. The bulbs are there in the dormant season and are quietly laboring to grow even more extensive and deeper root systems—preparing themselves for the right time and season to break forth from their hidden home and bloom.

Lamentations 3:24-25 ESV “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.” The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him.

Some of you feel like you have been praying for something, a need, healing, or a dream, but it hasn’t come to pass. The hope you felt the first time your knees touched the ground and your lips uttered your request waivers each day that prayers go unanswered, so you think it is dead. But I am here to tell you that it is not dead; it’s just sleeping.

Solomon tells us in Proverbs 13:12, “Hope deferred makes a heart sick.” Prayers for salvation for a family member that goes unanswered, the search for a new job that seems to go nowhere, the battle with cancer that lingers, the arms that ache for another baby lost in a miscarriage—all can make our hearts sick as we eagerly hope for something and it keeps getting postponed.

1 Peter 5:10 ESV And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.

You see, it’s easier to worship God in summer’s glory, with its vibrant colors, when the sun’s golden fingers caress your face. But can you learn to trust him in the cold and gray of winter when the sun hides for days, and the frigid wind stings your cheeks?

Allow God to prepare for you what you have been praying for. Stay close to him, pray, read his Word, and allow him to work while you wait. God is doing miraculous things in the secret place so that you can continue to grow and expand your roots, anchoring them into the soil of his love and grace.

Psalm 130:5 ESV I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I hope;

His timing is perfect, and he is working all things together for your good. As it is written in Isaiah 60:22, “When the time is right, I the Lord will make it happen.” Be blessed in your winter season, my friend. Let God do what he needs to do in the invisible so that you will be fully prepared for what he has planned for you when your spring arrives.

Our unfulfilled desires, unanswered prayers, and deferred hopes can lead us to a rich encounter with Christ Jesus. Like a balloon that escapes a child’s hand and drifts away, allow your hope to float to the Lord, who alone is the fulfillment of all that we pray and long for.

Philippians 1:6 ESV And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

Now, although it would of course be amazing to stay in the position of worship, as Mary did. We also have very distinct calls and purposes on our lives which require us to GO. We are required to ABIDE, which means to remain in him, as we go and do.

But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing. (James 1:22-25 ESV)

Passages like this one in James 1, not to mention The Great Commission in Matthew 28, give us clear instruction on the importance of doing the work of God.

Specifically, James 1:23 really strikes me in that the imagery of looking intently at the Word of God is described as being like someone who looks in a mirror. This gives us yet further insight into the fact that so much of our identity is tied up in the pages of Scripture.

The more we read his Word and understand his heart, the more we long to do what he’s created us for. So it starts with the study, but it doesn’t stay there. The natural response after any of us has learned something is to then go and put it into practice. The practice before the knowing can be limiting in that we’ll only ever get so far without knowing exactly what we’re meant to do and why. Equally, simply knowing without going is even more limiting.

Another phrase to note from our passage is the word ‘perseveres’ in verse 25. It can be easy, after a hard knock or a feeling of difficulty and struggle, to feel like perhaps we’ve got it wrong or that God isn’t actually with us after all, and that is one of the crucial reasons as to why it’s so vital to keep coming back to the word.

Just like we don’t look at ourselves in the mirror once and think to ourselves “well, I know what I look like now, I don’t need to look ever again!” – neither do we look to scripture once and think to ourselves “well, I know what to do now”. Of course, we know this in theory, but it can be harder to walk out in practice.

Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them inthe name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:16-20 ESV)

One of the most commonly asked questions for both Christians and non-Christians alike is “What is the purpose for my life?” As believers, we have answers to this not only on a broad scale, but also on a day-to-day basis as we continually revisit what God has to say about what is required of us each and every day.

Knowing this, then we must not simply theoretically know what is required of us; we must also be prepared and willing to walk it out, and we must continue to come back to it in order to be replenished, restored, and rejuvenated for what’s ahead. I hope that this short plan has encouraged you to do just that.

Now, of course, a devotional plan on the study of God as a means to an end would not be an adequate way to spend this time together. The majesty of God isn’t only something to be studied and pondered on in order to make ourselves feel smarter, or so that we might know more. Our study of him is, of course, an opportunity to KNOW him more. “And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.” (Genesis 3:8 NIV)

Picture the scene. You’ve been given a beautiful paradise in which to dwell, you’re given freedom and authority, and you’re also given one instruction which you must not violate… But you can’t help it, so you do.

God comes looking for you – He searches until he finds you and then asks you why you’re hiding.

Imagine the closeness, the connection, and the fellowship alongside the fear that it might soon be over…

Now, we know the story. If we know Jesus, we know that him taking on our sin (past, present, and future) means that although our sin has consequences, God’s not punishing us for it. But that isn’t the key point I raise by sharing this passage today.

I share it because it’s a reminder of the presence of the Lord, which we too can encounter daily. Adam and Eve were human just as we are, and yet they experienced something of God’s presence. They couldn’t stand to be in it because of their own sin, but they had the opportunity to closely encounter God, all the same.

We can so often limit the study of God to simply an opportunity to know more about him as opposed to actually knowing him.

“Now concerning food offered to idols: we know that ‘all of us possess knowledge.’ This ‘knowledge’ puffs up, but love builds up.” (1 Corinthians 8:1, NIV)

And so, with our fallen human nature, how do we actually obtain this place of ‘savouring’ as opposed to simply studying? The answer is in the attitude of our hearts toward Him.

Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel. (Psalm 22:3 ESV)

I will praise you with an upright heart, when I learn your righteous rules. (Psalm 119:7 ESV)

God inhabits the praises of his people, and we’re also encouraged to worship him with an upright heart.

In short, the more we study, the more we savour. The more we TRULY know, the more we want to know Him.

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. – John 10:10 ESV

Jesus longs that we’ll live our lives to the full – He truly does. But that abundant life he speaks of is, of course, so much more than simply lip service on a Sunday or our well-rehearsed prayers. Instead, it’s about honesty and wholehearted surrender to him.

When we can get to this place, it means we truly understand that we, too, are choosing ‘what is best’. We, too, are understanding that there is nothing else that compares to a moment at the feet of Jesus like Mary had, as we explored yesterday.

And of course, it’s not just Mary. The psalmist echoed this sentiment in Psalm 84:10.

Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere; I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked.

In this verse, we hear a similar refrain – a sentiment which suggests that a seemingly ‘low’ position before God is still better than the highest, most noble position there is without him.

The familiar ‘my God’ in this verse instantly speaks to me of relationship. This is not ‘the God’, ‘a God’, or even ‘God’, this is MY God. My Father, the One I cling to. When we cultivate relationship, and are in turn reminded that God is in no way distant or far off, we too recognise that our acts of service are only ever going to play a small part in the much, much bigger story of surrender.

The Word of God is one of the most crucial places within which we, God’s children, truly get to understand how wonderful this truth really is. It’s within those pages where we recall and remind ourselves of not only who we are, but also whose we are, which is ultimately more important.

We will never understand our identity, our calling, our purpose – all of the things we often seek to understand first – until we’re able to understand He whose image we have been created in.

“Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart.” (Psalm 37:4 NIV)

This often quoted verse is equally as often misquoted. We can read this and sometimes find ourselves believing that it’s saying that God loves us so much, He will give us whatever we want. But when we pause and think, we realise that our human nature sometimes desires things which, ultimately, are no good for us.

Real love – Indeed, God’s love gives us the things HE desires for us. But the beautiful truth about that is, the more we get to know Him, the more we DELIGHT in HIM as the scripture states, the more our desires line up with the things he longs for us to have anyway.

When met face to face with Jesus, Mary chose worship and Martha chose worry.

Luke 10:38-42 ESV Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to his teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.” But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.”

Jesus saying these words to Martha after she’s been rushing around trying to get the house ready for him always used to rub me the wrong way.

I used to find myself thinking ‘well, it’s all very well to say that the BEST thing is just to sit at your feet, but I don’t know how I can do that when there’s so much to do.’

The truth is, I still find myself thinking like that a lot of the time. But regardless of what emotions get stirred as we read these words from Jesus, it’s so vital that we pay attention.

When met face to face with Jesus, Mary chose worship and Martha chose worry.

Where do we find ourselves at those moments during the day when we just need to hear from him, but we also have hundreds of things to fit in? Does the to-do list get the domain? I know it often does for me.

The truth is, in order for us to understand what it is that Jesus is saying here, we must understand him. We know that we won’t fully know all there is to know about him now, but we also know that we can at least endeavour to understand and grow more as we study his word and his work.

Jesus was talking about attitudes of the heart here. He was making it clear that good deed after good deed wasn’t in any way the same as just sitting at his feet in worship and wonder. He wasn’t saying that we won’t have earthly responsibilities, of course. But he also wasn’t saying that they come first.

What comes first is always him. What comes first is always sitting at his feet before we rise to our own and get on with the duties of the day.

However, our own perspectives won’t always make this easy to understand. With the wrong frame of mind and indeed heart, we can quite frankly find ourselves frustrated with this sort of talk. This is why making that all-important space to sit at his feet is just so vital.

There are countless books that remark on the characteristics of God, our understanding of God in relation to our lives, how to use our God-given gifts, etc. Something we mustn’t skip, though, or feel to be irrelevant or less important, is the simple seeking of our Savior.

I say ‘simple’, but sometimes that’s so far from the truth, though, isn’t it? Sometimes one of the hardest things to do is to sit at Jesus’ feet and be still – to worship him, to adore him.

This devotional is all about the how and why of the study of God himself. Not as some form of dry study for study’s sake, of course, but because our relationship with Jesus is the most important we’ll ever have. I don’t propose to be able to cover it all in one devotional, but I do want to give us a foundation from which we can continually draw strength.

John 21:25 ESV Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.

As we go through these few days together, you’ll note that the so-called ‘study’ of God isn’t a means to an end or a box to be ticked, but the very lifeblood of what makes us who we are.

The closer we get to God, the more we’ll understand ourselves. We’re made in his image after all, and so it makes sense that in knowing our creator more intimately, we allow ourselves to be more fully known.

What’s incredible, though, is that it is just a bonus, an add-on, a free gift – because, as I pray you’ll discover as you go through this study, what is of most value in the seeking of our Savior, is that we might actually find him there.

Acts 17:26-27 ESV And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us.

He is not far from us, and my prayer as we go through these next few days together is that as we sit at His feet, we’ll know that to be true.