Acts 9

Bible Passage:  Acts 9

This chapter records the works of two powerful chosen vessels of God – Saul and Peter. I’ll like to focus my sharing on Saul.

Let’s read Acts 9:

Making his first appearance, Saul did not believe in the Lord growing up. He became a strong advocate of Judaism, and persecuted all the Christians who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. We read of his background in his letter to the Philippi church much later:

“…circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee; concerning zeal, persecuting the church; concerning the righteousness  which is in the law, blameless.”

Phil 3:5-6

We witness as we read on, an amazing transformation in Saul – from persecutor of the Christians to powerful co-worker of Christians, from building up his own righteousness by adherence to the law to obtaining righteousness from God by faith (Acts 9:9).

How did this incredible transformation come about?

Our God is a mighty God! He turns seemingly hopeless, impossible, difficult situations around and makes wonderful things happen.

God Remembers Us

God sees. He saw the strong sense of duty in Saul. He saw how Saul took it upon himself to run the cause he believed in. God saw his conviction in the work he did and had mercy on him. God showed magnanimity even when Saul persecuted Him, redirecting his misplaced fervour.

Nothing escapes our Lord. God also saw Saul praying (Acts 9:11). In his confusion, Saul knelt down to pray. He must be wondering about the Lord who spoke with him and who took away his sight. Like Saul, we turn to God to seek physical and emotional healing and clarity of issues. God hears us.

God Gives Grace to Us

I like thechosen‘s sharing on this same incident in last year’s bible blog. thechosen mentioned that in Saul’s period of blindness, God made him see. Ironic isn’t it? God could have destroyed Saul, as he was hindering the work of the apostles and causing harm to His believers. But God was merciful and showered grace on a person whom you and I would probably see as unworthy should Saul live in our times today. We should not get ahead of ourselves and God in our perception of others. Even God has shown mercy to Saul. How about us? Have we forgiven the Sauls in our lives and tried to redirect them to the truth?

God Guides Us

God made Saul realise that he was charging full speed but in the wrong direction. Too often, we are like Saul. We mean well but our focus is misdirected. We need self-reflection time once in a while to refocus on the goals in our faith, reflect on our speech, conduct and attitude in our service to God, and renew our fervour in our master’s business.

Saul was fortunate in that God chose him. There are many people around us today who are still lost in their evil works and their attempts to mutilate the truth, tainting it with lies and their personal desires (Phil 3:2-3).

God works in marvellous ways. He is able to use whoever He pleases to fulfil His commission. Let’s pray that we have a chance to be His chosen vessel.