Daily Devotion, August 23, 2020

 

Devotion: Read Acts 9:1-18.

  It is one of the most dramatic stories in all of the Bible. This man was so convinced that these followers of Jesus were harming God’s purposes that they had to be snuffed out. And he was giving his all to accomplish that mission.

  Then, it happened. Jesus confronted him, changed him and called him to a whole new life. It is fascinating that this conversion comes about while he is blinded. In a spiritual and mental sense, he had been blind to what God was doing through Jesus and his followers. Then Paul is healed of his blindness (spiritually, mentally, physically) and spends the rest of his life trying to convince others of what God is doing.

  Jesus also dealt with many people who were committed to God and thought they fully understood what God was doing in the world and wanted them to do. Yet Jesus said they were blind. Most of them remained in their blindness; Paul did not. He was willing to change. He was willing to have his mind and his spirit changed.

  For those who seek to follow Jesus Christ, it is a good practice every so often to ask him if you are still serving his mission. Have you become blinded to the ways and thinking of Jesus by the ways and thinking of this world?  If he wanted you to change in some dramatic way, would you be willing to do so? Personal Worship Option:

Words written in 1895 by Clara Scott are most fitting for you to consider as your prayer (I have adapted a few words to flow better in how we would speak today):

Open my eyes, that I may see, glimpses of truth you have for me;

place in my hands the wonderful key that shall unclasp and set me free.

Silently now I wait for you, ready my God your will to see.

Open my eyes, illumine me, Spirit divine! Amen.