Week 5 Day 2 - Going For the Gold!

TIES OF GRACE DAILY DEVOTIONS

Week 5 – Going For the Gold!

Day 2:  Acts 14: 19-21

¹⁹ Then some Jews came from Antioch and Iconium and won the crowd over. They stoned Paul and dragged him outside the city, thinking he was dead. ²⁰ But after the disciples had gathered around him, he got up and went back into the city. The next day he and Barnabas left for Derbe. ²¹ They preached the gospel in that city and won a large number of disciples.

Paul is one of my favorite people to study in the bible.  He was so remarkable!  He came from being the very one hating and persecuting Christians, to being the very one spreading the beautiful message of hope while enduring deep persecution.  I am always drawn to know more of those that have come from such darkness into the light.  The testimony of their salvation is always overwhelming to me, as evidence of the transforming power Christ really has if we let Him.  I love to celebrate it.  And because of powerful testimonies of that nature, I have heard many people that didn’t experience such darkness before they found Jesus claim, “I have nothing big to share, I don’t have a story like that!” and I can see where they are coming from.  Sometimes we are initially most captivated by the “big stories”.  But I think , when I look at Paul, though I am amazed by His transformation, what is most drawing to me, is not the initial change that took place.  What is most addicting to me about Paul is how he lived his life from salvation on until the end.  How he finished his race is what grabs my heart and convicts me to look closely at my own journey! Yes, I am amazed that God grabbed him on that road to Damascus.  It thrills me to see the radical change because it does give hope for those that seem so far from salvation that we pray for.  But that story is just the start.  Once it’s told, it is known.  What is truly contagious is the way Paul lived after.  He endured great difficulty and ultimately death for his faith in Jesus Christ.  The testimony that comes out of how he walked with Christ is far more humbling to me than how God found him.  No matter how we have come to Christ, no matter how easy or how difficult, the real story unfolds starting from the moment we choose Him to be our Lord and Savior. And I want to be like Paul.  I want to be able to face anything and keep my faith.  I want to be able to trust that God has me and loves me and I want to sing His praises under all circumstances.  Paul was a spiritual giant!  I can sometimes sit right down here in Houston, Texas and find myself wallowing in my circumstances and find praise absent from my lips…But not Paul.  Just as these scriptures tell us, along with the rest of scripture that documents his life and ministry on earth, Paul would get up in the middle of the most horrendous circumstances and get right back to the business of sharing the good news to as many as would listen, with praise on his lips for the One that had saved him.  Paul ran his race until the very end where he ultimately met his Maker, with what I am certain was with praise still yet on his lips!  Some would say Paul was defeated because he was beheaded.  Paul knew better.  He knew to keep his eyes up and press on… and he made it Home!  I don’t know about you, but even when things are really bad, I can’t honestly say I have ever been stoned or the such.  I certainly have never faced jail for my Jesus.  So if Paul, in the worst of circumstances, finds praise, how much more can we?