SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/30/2017 12:24 PM
My Worship Time Focus: Faithfulness in Service
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Acts
9:13-17a
Message of the verses: “13 But Ananias answered, "Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much harm he did to Your saints at Jerusalem; 14 and here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on Your name." 15 But the Lord said to him, "Go, for he is a chosen instrument of Mine, to bear My name before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel; 16 for I will show him how much he must suffer for My name’s sake." 17 So Ananias departed and entered the house, and after laying his hands on him said, "Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road by which you were coming, has sent me so that you may regain your sight,”
We mentioned that Saul was praying to the Lord, and that
God gave a vision to Ananias to tell him to go and see Saul, and now we want to
talk about the response that Ananias has to this vision. Perhaps we think that if we knew that we were
getting a vision from the Lord that we would jump up and do what He wanted us
to do right away. However that was not
the case with Ananias as kind of like Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist,
Ananias has some concerns about what the Lord wanted him to do. As far as his concerns I understand them for
what Saul was doing to the believers could have meant Ananias would have to die
for his faith. I have thought about a
question that I even asked in our Wednesday evening service, and that is I
wonder how many people were actually praying that God would save Saul of
Tarsus. Ananias was afraid of him with
good reason, but I wonder if he was praying for him. I don’t know the answer to that question, but
I have to say that I find it difficult to pray for people who are persecuting
the church or who dislike Christianity, so I can understand if Ananias was not
praying for Saul of Tarsus. John MacArthur
writes “The request no doubt appeared to him to be suicidal. His life was at stake, and so was the
ministry he had in the church. He was
asking if the Lord really meant to end both.”
We see from verse fifteen that the Lord overruled as God
said, “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of Mine, to bear My name before the
Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel.”
MacArthur adds “The
call to the ministry is not based on the whims of men but on the sovereign
choice of God.” How true this
statement is. All we have to do is look
at the life of Paul to see that what happened to him in the remaining portion
of his life had all be planned in the sovereign will of God. Ananias understands the call of God as he
undoubtedly saw it in his life. Let us
look at something that Paul wrote in the very first verse of Galatians “Paul,
an apostle (not sent from
men nor through the agency of man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father,
who raised Him from the dead).”
We can see similar writings from Paul in some of his other letters
including first and second Timothy, and also Colossians. Paul realized that his primarily
responsibility was to preach to the Gentiles he would go to the Jews first
before going to the Gentiles. Paul knew
where his calling came from and so he obeyed his calling and God used him and
others in that early church to turn the world upside down for the cause of
Christ.
God also told Ananias that Paul would have to suffer much
for the cause of Christ and suffer he did as he gives a list of his sufferings
to the Corinthians in his second letter to them. Paul’s sufferings would not stop until, for
the cause of Christ; died in Rome by having his head cut off.
Ananias was strengthened by the words of the Lord and so he “departed and entered the house” of Judas, “and after laying his hands on him said, ‘Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road by which you were coming, has sent me so that you may regain your sight.’” “And [Ananias] said, The God of our fathers has appointed you to know His will, and to see the Righteous One, and to hear an utterance from His mouth. For you will be a witness for Him to all men of what you have seen and heard (Acts 22:14-15).”
MacArthur concludes “The stories of both Ananias and Saul
illustrate the truth that the transformed life demands service to Christ. As Saul was later to write ‘Let a man regard
us in this manner, as servants of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God’
(1 Cor. 4:1).”
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: Be ready to do
what the Lord desires me to do, and then do it.
My Steps of Faith for today: Trust that the Lord will continue to give me
the words to say to our new neighbors that the Holy Spirit will use to speak to
their hearts and give them an effectual call for salvation in His time.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Lebanon” (1 Kings 5:6).
Today’s Bible
question: “Identify the first person who
met Jephthah when he came home from battle.”
Sad answer in our next SD:
12/30/2017 1:09 PM
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