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6 So he, trembling and astonished, said, “Lord, what do You want me to do?”
Then the Lord said to him, “Arise and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.” Acts 9:6 NKJV
Let’s set the stage for this day. Saul had believed that he was doing what God wanted him to do. He did it with zeal. Saul had the new group of followers, Christians, cast into prison and killed.
He thought he was doing well.
One day, however, he was stopped in his tracks amid his self-appointed, hideous mission. He heard a Voice and saw a brilliant light. The voice asked him why Saul was persecuting Him. Saul asks the Voice Who He is, and the Voice tells him that He is Jesus, Whom Saul was persecuting.
Saul is now terrified and trembling and asks Jesus what He wants him to do.
It is a question we must each ask of the Lord.
What is it that YOU want ME to do?
Listen to His answer and do it.
In the case of Saul,
Jesus tells him to get up and go into the city, where he will be told what he must do. When Saul opened his eyes, he was blind and had to be led by the hand. This formerly strong, active man is now being led into Damascus. He is blind for three days. He neither eats nor drinks.
Imagine the change in Saul’s thinking. He truly believed before meeting Jesus on the Damascus road that he was doing what was right.
Maybe you have thought that you were going about your life the right way.
I don’t expect that you were out there killing Christians. I do expect you might not have given Jesus much real thought at all. You went about your way, ignoring the Lord and the things of the Lord. You likely didn’t go to church except for holidays, weddings, or funerals. Furthermore, you were busy, productive, and fully involved with your own life.
Then one day, you heard His Voice in your heart changing what you thought before.
Maybe you listened to the Voice that had often spoken to you, but that you seldom paid attention to.
The Lord had a purpose for Saul.
He was changed. Thereafter, he was called Paul, but that was the least of the changes.
The Lord tells Paul that he is a chosen vessel to share Jesus with the Gentiles as well as the children of Israel. We read it here:
15 But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen vessel of Mine to bear My name before Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel. Acts 9:15 NKJV
Think of the difficulty of a man who is known for killing believers, now himself a believer in Christ.
People were not trusting of him, to say the least, and terrified of him most of the time. They likely believed that they were being set up by Saul, now called Paul. It took Paul walking the walk for folks to begin to see his sincerity.
The rest of his life, he grows in strength and amazes others, proving to them that Jesus is the Christ, the Risen Son of God.
22 But Saul increased all the more in strength, and confounded the Jews who dwelt in Damascus, proving that this Jesus is the Christ. Acts 9:22 NKJV
May we change like Saul into a new man.
Not just our name changed but our very heart and spirit. May we also go forth telling others of this Jesus, Who is the Son of God and Who has changed our lives.