Destined for Greatness

"He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When others are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us."

— 2 Corinthians 1:4

 

It has been said that it takes a steady hand to hold a full cup. God was planning to give a full cup to the apostle Paul. So He took Paul away and put him into obscurity in the desert of Arabia for a time. We are not told what happened there, but we can only presume that he drew close to the Lord in fellowship and communion. It was there that Paul refined his theology, evidenced in the New Testament epistles that God inspired him to write. 

 

Simple Obedience

"Go and do what I say. For Saul is my chosen instrument to take my message to the Gentiles and to kings, as well as to the people of Israel."

— Acts 9:15

 

Prior to his conversion, Saul was a leading Pharisee and possibly even a member of the Jewish Sanhedrin. He presided over the death of the first martyr of the Christian church, Stephen. After his encounter with Jesus on the Damascus Road resulted in his conversion, the Christians of Saul's day were at first suspicious of his conversion, and understandably so.

So when God directed a believer in Damascus named Ananias to seek out Saul and pray for him, Ananias was reluctant, of course. But Ananias did what God told him to do. He found Saul in the place where God said he would be. He prayed that the Lord would restore Saul's sight (he had been blinded by the light as Jesus spoke to him on the Damascus Road), which the Lord did.

Shaped by Suffering

"Since I know it is all for Christ's good, I am quite content with my weaknesses and with insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong."

— 1 Corinthians 12:10

 

On a recent visit to North Carolina, I drove through a town named Mocksville. I should have been born there. Prior to becoming a Christian, I always loved to mock other people. So when I became a follower of Jesus, I was shocked to discover that I was the one being mocked. People were laughing at me because of my faith in Christ.

This is what happened to Paul, but in a far more intense way. Right after his conversion, he started preaching the gospel in Damascus. But he was so powerful and persuasive that the religious leaders wanted him dead.