Stomping Snakes

Devotional for Saturday, April 3, 2004 by Brenda Wood

Like most women, I do not like snakes. I run from their presence. I switch the channel if one shows up on television. I shudder at the very thought of being near one. In Mel Gibson's movie, "The Passion of the Christ", Jesus is tempted in the Garden of Gethsemane by a person representing Satan, who is accompanied by a slithering snake. In a startling scene, Christ is portrayed as striking out with His heel and crushing the snake's head.

This scene bothered me, not because I couldn't switch the channel, or get out of my theatre seat fast enough. No, it was because I suddenly understood, in a deeper way, that I had actually been entertaining snakes in my own life: Satan's deceptions.

At Jesus' crucifixion, although Satan may have bruised Jesus on the heel, Jesus stomped on Satan's head, and thoroughly destroyed any real power he has, through death and sin, in our lives. Now Satan's only remaining power lies in deception: he wants us to believe that he still has power to kill and destroy. Our own power comes in the truth of Jesus Christ, Who promised that "the truth will set you free" (John 8:32). When we depend totally on Him, our actions, habits, and thoughts will be nothing less than Christ-like.

Prayer: Lord, too often we forget that Your Son died for us and took control over the power of sin and death. We conveniently disremember all that Your Holy Spirit tells us. Lord, please help us to choose to get in on the stomping. Help us to kill in ourselves anything that is not like You. Amen.

Brenda Wood <brenda.w@nextcom.ca>
Sandycove Acres, Innisfil, Ontario, Canada

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