November 16 - Acts 9-10: My Personal Representative

But the Master said, "Don't argue. Go! I have picked him as my personal representative to non-Jews and kings and Jews..." 

"Brother Saul, the Master sent me, the same Jesus you saw on your way here. He sent me so you could see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit." No sooner were the works out of his mouth than something like scales fell from Saul's eyes - he could see again! He got to his feet, was baptized, and sat down with them to a hearty meal. (9:15, 17-19)

I love the story of Paul's radical conversion. It gives me such hope. If someone like Paul - a fire-breathing, church-devastating, track-down-Christ-followers-in-other-cities kind of wild man - can come to know the Lord, how can I possibly doubt that God can work in the lives of the people I know?

"Luke tells the story of Paul's conversion not to show us what a typical conversion should look like but to convince us that anyone, absolutely anyone, is capable of conversion." Eugene Peterson, Conversations, pg. 1696

I was the last person in the world that my little sister thought would come to Christ - and I would have agreed with her - yet here I am today. (After twelve long years of her praying for me, mind you...thanks for persevering, Stacey!) No doubt that for the vast majority of those years, I looked like a lost cause.

Paul's story (and mine) reminds me not to give up on friends and neighbors who don't know the Lord, whether they're indifferent or hostile to the name of Jesus. It encourages me to continue to pray diligently for these people, whether they seem interested in the gospel or not, and to pursue community with them.

"The story of Paul's conversion comes as a sudden and surprising invasion of God's activity in the person whom I think is the enemy, in the one individual I've given up on. This man from whom I expect the worst is the man about whom God said, "I have picked him as my personal representative" (verse 15). 

When we read the passage this way, it's no longer a story about a conversion that happened to someone else a long time ago. It's now a story about what God can do with the person I think is beyond God's grace. It's the Word of God that raises my expectations about the person from whom I expect nothing but the worst. 

Look around you - look at the person you think is least likely to be your ally as you seek to serve God. Look at the person from whom you, with good reason, expect the worst. Now listen to this word of God about that person: "I have picked him (or her) as my personal representative." 

How does this change your view of that person? Your words to him or her? Your actions toward him or toward her?" Eugene Peterson, Conversations, pg. 1697

Lord, I confess I've become weary in praying for certain unbelieving friends. You know who they are. Truthfully, I've just lost hope, not believing they'll ever want a relationship with You (as if that's the driving factor!) On some level, I don't believe You'll change their heart. Lord, help my unbelief!

Thank You for this reminder today that no one is beyond Your reach, nobody is hopeless. You know the ones who are on my heart, the ones I want to see in eternity. I pray, Lord, You'll do whatever it takes to reveal Yourself to each one of them. Thank You for Your unfailing love, mercy, and faithfulness, to me and to them.