Devotion:
Read Acts 26:9-20.
Our teachings on God’s awesome grace is one of the distinctive and defining aspects of Wesleyan theology. We refer to God reaching out to the sinner and calling that person to repent and turn to God as “prevenient” grace. With many of us, we experience God’s prevenient grace as a tug or prompting to give our heart fully to God. For the person reared in a Christian home and already believing, repentance may bring about a subtle shift in her or his life. For others, God’s reaching out with prevenient grace comes more as a body slam than a gentle nudge.
In this passage, Paul himself describes his Damascus Road experience in which God reached out with unearned, unmerited, undeserved love to him (then called Saul), who was doing everything he possibly could to stamp out The Way and its followers. Saul needed this dramatic experience in order for him to be open to receiving God’s love and God’s call upon his life. Saul had seen these followers of Christ remain faithful as he persecuted them. He had watched Stephen pray for the forgiveness of those who stoned him. Even as he rode along that day, Saul may have been wondering what drove these believers. His heart was radically changed as he accepted God’s grace and assumed his new ministry.
Personal Worship Option:
If you have accepted Christ as your Lord and Savior, reflect on what pulled you to do that. That is, how did you feel God’s prevenient grace? For most of us, it was not nearly as dramatic as Paul’s experience. If you have not yet accepted Christ, pray for your openness to the grace that reaches out to each of us.
No comments:
Post a Comment