Year 4, Day 242: Acts 9

Theological Commentary: Click Here 

Discipleship Focus: Grace

• Grace: Grace comes to us when we make mistakes and have a failing of character.  Grace comes to us when we have a typical D₂ moment.  Grace comes to us when we need space to recognize a mistake, repent of it, and allow God to redeem it while calling us back into His will.  Grace is partnered by Time and Vision.

Do you know what we call it when God looks upon a person who seeks to persecute His people and turns that person into an incredible evangelist?  Grace.  Paul has a moment of failure.  Paul has a crisis of character.  Paul starts persecuting Jesus Himself – note Jesus’ introduction to Paul in Acts 9:4.  What does Paul get when he deserves a good smiting?  He gets grace instead.

That’s such a cool point.  Paul gets grace.  For the record he also gets time and vision.  He gets time to think about what happens to him.  He also gets new vision – literally and figuratively!  But he gets grace most of all.  Considering how much fervor he employed in persecuting Christ and His followers, Paul should have been struck by lightning or had a meteor crash into his head or perhaps some other divine judgment.  But Paul doesn’t get divine judgment.  He gets grace.

You don’t fall into too many bigger pits of despair in a lifetime than Paul gets here.  You don’t have many moments of crisis in faith like Paul has here.  But God is with Paul.  After all he’s done, Paul is still open to God.  Grace takes over and Paul finds himself able to crawl out of that great pit of despair.  If Paul can do it, so can you!

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