Subtitle: Give to Jesus what He gladly accepts. And be sure to give Him those eyes, too. Give Him your loyalty and your heart.
Excerpt: The devotion emphasizes surrendering to Jesus, contrasting Paul’s immediate devotion with believers’ struggle to fully commit.
Scripture
Our verse for today comes from Acts 9:8, “Saul rose from the ground, and although his eyes were opened, he saw nothing. So they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus.”
Background
Every believer has a testimony. If you are a follower of Jesus, then you have a story of what you were before Christ and what you are now because of Him. Perhaps your conversion is less dramatic than Paul’s. I would dare say most of ours are. But what you were saved unto is the very same. It may not seem like it, but the path that Paul followed after his encounter with Jesus is the same one we all are to walk. But clearly few of us are following that path. So, what is keeping us from leaving Damascus and following the way of a converted sinner like Paul? What keeps me from asking, “Lord, what do You want me to do?” Well, look at Paul as he encountered Jesus on his way. When the bright light of the glory of God shone around him, bright enough to overwhelm the noonday sun, Paul fell to the ground. He immediately bowed to the King, even before he knew who He was. Paul just knew that the control he previously had over his life was over. All that was left was to find out who he was going to be serving. So Paul asks, “Who are You, Lord? What shall I do, Lord?” He doesn’t repeat a prayer after someone, and there was no aisle for him to walk down. He simply gave his loyalty and devotion to the One who deserved it.
Application
Now, we’ve called Him Lord, but have we given ourselves to Him? And then, when Paul arose, the Lord was already teaching him about faith, for his eyes did not work. The first thing that God did to Paul was take away his sight and make him rely on something else. And here is what keeps us in Damascus. Our eyes are still working. We continue to live our lives by sight, trusting what we can see. We haven’t been blinded by His glory, so we still see with our former eyes. We struggle to believe, to go beyond where we are, to be led by His hand. But that is where His road leads. Paul saw nothing with his eyes. He saw it all with his heart, the heart given to Jesus. That’s the only GPS this journey requires.
Charge
As we seek Him today, give to Jesus what He gladly accepts. And be sure to give Him those eyes, too. Give Him your loyalty and your heart.
Salvation – Eternal Life in Less Than 150 Words
Distributed by – BCWorldview.org
