Passage of the Day: Acts 9: 10 - 21 … Acts 9 linked for study …
My Journal for Today: Chuck Swindoll, a Pastor with over 50 years of experience as a Minister, Pastor, and Bible teacher, posits the following at the end of his devotional entry for today. He writes, “Be careful (in life) about feeling too settled where you are – physically, emotionally, spiritually, or geographically.”
And why is this? Simple answer: God is full of surprises. God certainly surprised Saul of Tarsus and even Ananias in our historical story today. And Swindoll posits that this is an M.O. for God’s way of doing business in our relationship with our Lord. His will is often to shake us from our comfort zones in life and to move us to confront circumstances which shake and transform us into an image which glorifies God, the Father. With our human nature being what it is, this process of metamorphosis, which is called sanctification, often – if not always – requires surprising changes in our attitudes, positions in life, and even occasionally in where we live, move, and have our being. We can certainly see this in the life of Paul in the NT, but also Moses, Joseph, Gideon, Nehemiah, Habakkuk, and others in the OT.
God shakes us up so that the scales can fall from our eyes. He shakes us up so that we can move to serve Him. And he shakes us up so that we can become more like Him.
My friend, … do you want to become more like Jesus? Well, if your answer to this is an unqualified “Yes!,” you better be ready for some surprises in life; and you better be a firm believer in a verse the Apostle Paul wrote later in his life, … that sometimes aggravating truth from Romans 8: 28; and I won’t quote it because you probably know that one by now.
Let me pray for us, my friend; and I pray that we’ll be like the Apostle Paul when he was shaken to the core of his being by Jesus. I pray that we shake the scales out of our eyes, … that we get up, check out where God wants us to go, … and that we simply do what God calls us to do.
My friends, let’s not resist God’s will. Let’s just respond in the words of that old Nike commercial. When God requires surprising change, let us …“just do it!”
My Prayer for Today: Lord, I so desperately want to serve you as YOU desire to be served, … in the way YOU call me, … and in the place YOU lead me. Amen
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