I am grateful, Father, that You are always with me. It brings comfort and if I will listen, it keeps me on the straight and narrow way. Enable me to abide in You. Amen.
Acts 9:19b-31 (<<click here to read the passage)
Followers of Jesus, I would encourage you to embrace your uniqueness! So many think so little of themselves and their talents and abilities. If need be, we should be about reminding ourselves that we all are unique creations. Our loving heavenly Father made you just the way you are for a reason. And we need to live it out! Ask Him, if you’re not sure what your giftedness might be, and He will show you!
Saul was most definitely a gifted and well-learned Pharisee. He would later make it very clear where he stood in God’s eyes.
But even before I was born, God chose me and called me by his marvelous grace. Galatians 1:15a NLT
God knew who he was before even he knew himself! Saul was unique. I am unique. You are unique. And God knowing all there is to know about us can use who we are to impact His Kingdom.
Saul from a young age was pretty confident in who he was but many are much less so. Take Gideon, one of Israel’s judges before there were kings. His story is found in Judges 6-8. He was just an ordinary guy, doing his best to survive in a time of great turmoil in Israel. God knew Gideon was far more capable than he thought he was. It took a fair amount of convincing but once that was accomplished, Gideon did outstanding work in the service of God by overthrowing the oppressive Midianites army. Through him, he destroyed their huge army with what ended up being a very small group of warriors, ram’s horns, and torches hidden under clay jars!
God knew who Gideon was before he even knew himself! Gideon was unique.
God did more with Saul – whom He later renamed Paul – than Saul could ever have accomplished on his own, regardless of how zealous Saul thought he was for God and His purposes
God knows me and he knows you. You may not think much of yourself, but God surely does! And God can use us – our unique selves – to accomplish great things for His Kingdom! And we can’t go by the world’s definitions of what those great things are. For as God proclaims in Isaiah 55:8-9,
“My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord.
….“And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.
For just as the heavens are higher than the earth,
….so my ways are higher than your ways
….and my thoughts higher than your thoughts. NLT
Trust. God. Open yourself to His will and guidance in Your life. You just never know what great things God has in store…for you…and the world!
Mar 24th, 2022, Thurs, 5:05 pm
