Take a moment to read Acts 9:1-19 before reading the devotional below.
Have you ever been so determined to follow your own plans and then God finds a way to interrupt them? In today’s passage, we find Saul more determined than ever to end this Jesus business once and for all. He had obtained legal authority from the high priests to arrest all the believers (at that time known as “followers of the Way”), and he could not wait to drag them all right back to Jerusalem in chains. Who knows what his plans were after that…
But because God is God, Saul got knocked off his horse and blinded when he bumped into Jesus on the road to the city of Damascus. Jesus was already back up in heaven, but he had no problem making an appearance that Saul would not be likely to forget. And Jesus just asks a simple question: “Why are you persecuting me?” For all his former gusto, Saul seems to lack an answer.
Meanwhile, a believer named Ananias heard from God during a prayer session and it was one of those “Is this really you, God?” moments… Saul is the most notorious persecutor of Christians, and God asked Ananias to go meet him on the road. When he found Saul, he greeted him as “brother” and demonstrated the depths of love and forgiveness that only God can bring.
God will always set you on the right path. You don’t even have to be looking for it (though that certainly does save some time). Saul was on a mission of destruction, but God saw fit in his wondrous mercy to stop Saul in his tracks and turn his life around. Don’t worry that you’ve somehow “missed” God or his directions. He has his ways of getting our attention when we go astray. And if you are praying and God asks you to do something scary (as he did with Ananias), argue a little to make sure you’ve got those instructions down pat and then go and do it. It might just impact the world for generations.