Every Morning — September 28, 2026: Bitten and Unbothered
God can protect you in the middle of a disaster you never caused.
Key Scripture
Acts 28:3–6 (WEB)
"When Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks and laid them on the fire, a viper came out because of the heat, and fastened on his hand. When the natives saw the creature hanging from his hand, they said one to another, 'No doubt this man is a murderer, whom, though he has escaped from the sea, yet Justice has not allowed to live.' However he shook off the creature into the fire, and wasn't harmed… they changed their minds, and said that he was a god."
Devotional
Let's start with the context, because it matters: Paul didn't do anything wrong to end up here. He was already shipwrecked, already stranded on an unfamiliar island called Malta, already at the mercy of a storm nobody controlled. He's simply gathering firewood to help everyone stay warm — an act of basic service — when a viper, hiding in the branches, sinks its fangs into his hand.
The islanders, watching this, immediately assume the worst about him. "This man must be a murderer. He survived the sea, but justice is finally catching up with him now." People do this constantly — the moment they see disaster attach itself to you, they assume you must have deserved it.
Paul doesn't defend himself, doesn't explain his innocence, doesn't argue theology with strangers about karma versus grace. He simply shakes the snake into the fire and keeps living. No swelling, no collapse, nothing. The islanders wait for him to drop dead, and when he doesn't, they swing completely to the opposite conclusion — now he must be a god.
Neither reaction was accurate. He wasn't a murderer being punished, and he wasn't a deity either. He was just a man under God's protection, in the middle of a mess he didn't create.
This story matters for anyone who's been shipwrecked by something outside their control — a layoff, an illness, a betrayal, a circumstance you didn't cause and can't fully explain — while people around you quietly draw conclusions about what you must have done to deserve it. You don't always owe people that explanation. Sometimes you just need to shake off what's attached itself to you and keep moving.
"No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper" (Isaiah 54:17, KJV). The snake was real, the bite was real, and God's protection was still greater than both.
Whatever venom life has attached to you lately — an unfair assumption, a painful season, a bite you didn't provoke — you're allowed to shake it into the fire and keep serving, keep living, keep gathering the next bundle of sticks. Survival isn't proof of guilt or greatness. It's proof of whose hand you're actually in.
Prayer
Lord, protect me in the disasters I didn't cause, and give me the strength to shake off what tries to attach itself to me unfairly. Let my survival point people to You, not to me. In Jesus' name, Amen.
Dig Deeper
Acts 28:1–10
Isaiah 54:17
Psalm 91:9–13
2 Timothy 4:17–18
Reading Plan
Today's Reading
Acts 28
Isaiah 54
Psalm 91
Today's Thought
Not every disaster attached to you says something true about you. Some things you just shake off and keep going.
From Every Morning — September 2026 by Margaret Nwakaego Usio.