Press the arrow to listen to Phil Stacey “You’re Not Shaken” as you read today’s devotion about handling confrontational moments.

Scripture
How can Satan drive out Satan? Mark 3:23
Who are my mother and my brothers? Mark 3:33

Observation
Jesus was hit with the old “one two” punch. First came the preachers and next came his mother and brothers. Both thought that Jesus was out of his mind.

Jesus was backed into a corner. He was called a madman and he had no one to defend him. The establishment had turned their backs on him and he had lost the confidence of his own kinsfolk. It would have been easy for Jesus to have become defensive, but he didn’t make himself look pathetic.

Instead, Jesus turned to the power of a question. Questions are like hot water on ice, they melt through hardness with a power stronger than a speaker’s personality but from the weight of the question mark. After a question is asked it will keep on asking in the mind of the opponent. Questions beg to be asked. Once spoken they are sent out the door like child beggars into the street. They won’t relent until satisfied.

Question marks are hungry things.

Application
Jesus is fascinating because he is God showing us how to be a human being. There is a better way than defensiveness. There is a power of a question. If Jesus could defend himself without appearing defensive, even when accused of insanity, and still come out looking wise, then there is in this an example for me to follow today.

Prayer
Father, in the heat of the moment, when this devotional moment is long forgotten, help me to remember and to do what Jesus did and still does. Amen.