Loving Saul To Uncover Paul

Loving Saul To Uncover Paul

Ananias went and found Saul. He laid his hands on him and said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road, has sent me so that you might regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” Instantly something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes, and he regained his sight. Then he got up and was baptized. Acts 9:17-19

When the Christians in Damascus heard that Saul had been struck blind, they may have thought that the Lord had answered their prayers by taking down their worst enemy. Finally they could sleep at night, no longer worried that Saul would make them his next victims.

But imagine how Ananias felt when God sent him to heal Paul. What if Jesus asked you to help an evil person? Would you do it?

I had the opportunity to find out for myself one night while working in the ER when a prisoner was brought from jail for treatment. Before I went in to see him, an officer pulled me aside.

“You need to know that this guy was arrested for first-degree murder. And not only does the evidence point to his guilt, but he also confessed. I need to warn you that he may be violent, so if you can’t see him, we’ll take him somewhere else.”

This presented a conflict for me. When I was in high school, some very close friends of mine were murdered in a savage attack. After that incident, I had walked away from my faith for many years, returning only after a dream in which God showed me that my friends were safe and whole in heaven. Now God was asking me to treat a prisoner who had taken the lives of someone else’s loved ones.

After saying a quick prayer, I cautiously approached the patient. What I found was a man just like me—fallen and broken. Though I’d never murdered anyone, I knew I was capable of evil if I strayed from the Lord. As I finished bandaging his wounds, I found myself thinking, There but for the grace of God go I.

Are you willing to be used by God as an instrument of grace to those who need it most? Who knows? You might be witness to a modern-day Saul-to-Paul conversion.

TODAY’S RX

Ask God to help you love the broken people in your life.

God, it’s easy for me to forget that those who’ve committed evil in this world are your children too. Help me not to cast judgment on them, but to pray for them to see their need for you. Use me to be a light in their world.