The Certain Challenge of Jesus Christ in Our Lives

Acts 9:4

He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, "Saul! Saul! Why are you persecuting me?"

Saul thought he was doing everything right.  He was on fire for his spiritual cause.  Unfortunately for Saul, his cause was grounded in his own reasoning without a foundation of faith in Jesus and without the direction of the Holy Spirit.  Saul rightfully could claim an "A" for effort.  But he was not being challenged by Jesus Christ for his efforts, he was being challenged for the self-driven misdirection of his efforts.

Just like Saul, all of us will face a day when the Lord challenges us.  As with Saul, Our Lord has grounds to accuse us.  While Jesus may not have grounds to challenge us for persecuting His church, He certainly will have a strong case for challenging us on the grounds of our obstinacy in following our own will and not fully surrendering to the call of Our Lord on our lives.

While Saul surrendered his old life and became Paul, the apostle, we have stubbornly hung closer to our old nature than the new one that Jesus has for us.  While we may not have been strongly challenged yet, at some defining point, like Saul, we will all be strongly and directly challenged by Jesus to denounce our old lives and accept our calling as His disciples.    

Let us set aside our own plans.  Let us seek God's plan for our lives.  Let us submit to God's plans for our lives with the same fervor that Paul did.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, we thank You for drawing us to Your Son.  We praise You for setting aside a perfect plan for our lives in Your kingdom here on earth and in heaven.  We rejoice in knowing that we will serve You for all eternity.  We pray, Lord, that we will not be directed by our own ambitions, but be led by Your Holy Spirit.  We claim Your promise that through Your Holy Spirit, Your strength will be perfected in our weakness.  We beseech You, Father, that You grant us a double portion of Paul's fervor for proclaiming Your Good News to the world.  We pray these things in the name of our Blessed Hope and Assurance, Jesus Christ.