The Word of God for wisdom:
Proverbs 17:4 (MSG)
4 Evil people relish malicious conversation; the ears of liars itch for dirty gossip.
The Word of God for inspiration:
Psalm 131:1-2 (ESV)
1 O LORD, my heart is not lifted up; my eyes are not raised too high; I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me.
2 But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me.
The Word of God for encouragement:
Acts 9:1-9 (HCSB)
1 Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord. He went to the high priest
2 and requested letters from him to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any men or women who belonged to the Way, he might bring them as prisoners to Jerusalem.
3 As he traveled and was nearing Damascus, a light from heaven suddenly flashed around him.
4 Falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?"
5 "Who are You, Lord?" he said. "I am Jesus, the One you are persecuting," He replied.
6 "But get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do."
7 The men who were traveling with him stood speechless, hearing the sound but seeing no one.
8 Then Saul got up from the ground, and though his eyes were open, he could see nothing. So they took him by the hand and led him into Damascus.
9 He was unable to see for three days and did not eat or drink.
My observation:
Every child of God has a story, and in today's focal passage from Acts we have the beginning of the story of the conversion of Saul of Tarsus; the persecutor, to Paul; the missionary to the Gentiles.
Every one of us has a past, and Saul was no different. There is the person that we used to be. This passage begins with the person Saul used to be. But, something happened to Saul on his way to being a persecutor of Christ followers. These verses describe what happened to Saul that changed his life.
Acts 9:3-5 (HCSB)
3 As he traveled and was nearing Damascus, a light from heaven suddenly flashed around him.
4 Falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?"
5 "Who are You, Lord?" he said. "I am Jesus, the One you are persecuting," He replied.
The Jesus who Saul met on the road to Damascus is alive today, and is still in the business of changing lives. He has the power to change persecutors into preachers. He has the power to deliver those who were previously devastators. Jesus has the power to convert sinners into saints.
If you are a child of God today, you have a story that is similar to the story of Saul. I thank the Lord that I am not the person I used to be, but praise God; he is not finished with me yet because I am not yet the person I am going to be when God completes the work that he has begun in me.
Do you have a story of where the Lord has brought you from? God loves you too much to leave you the way you are or the way you used to be. What he did for Saul, he will do for you.
Acts 9:15 (HCSB)
15 But the Lord said to him, "Go! For this man is My chosen instrument to take My name to Gentiles, kings, and the Israelites.
My prayer:
Our Father in heaven, my dear Father, I am so grateful that you are still in the business of converting sinners into saints.
Father God, I thank you that when Jesus died on the cross at Calvary that I died; that my sins have been marked "Paid in Full" by the precious and royal blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Father, I thank you that Jesus is able to clean up the mess that sin made in my life.
Father, I praise and thank you for being a God who is able to deliver anyone who comes to you from the person they used to be to the person you made them to be. Amen.
Galatians 2:19-20 (HCSB)
19 For through the law I have died to the law, so that I might live for God. I have been crucified with Christ
20 and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.
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8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."
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