Transforming Grace

Once a month I write a devotional for my church and I often share its non-abbreviated version with the rest of my blog readers who are not a part of my local church family. Two of my pastors each shared different perspectives from Acts 9 about the Holy Spirit’s role as God’s expression of grace to us and that’s what inspired me to write this devotional.

Grace. It is a seemingly endless cycle; where at one point we need to be its grateful recipient and in other moments we are called to be an extension of it to others and these two states switch back and forth…and each scenario is orchestrated by God’s Spirit. But as the wisest man who ever lived said in Ecclesiastes 1:9 “What has been will be again; there is nothing new under the sun”; for this is a story that has replayed itself for centuries before our birth.

But before we delve further down this well-trodden path, you may well ask; “Does one life really matter all that much?” My heart declares an emphatic yes! As we will soon discover; the influence of a single life holds the power to alter the face of its entire generation…and sometimes of those generations who will come behind it as well.

For proof I offer the well-educated Saul, who had every advantage of influence, education and at least sufficient wealth. Surely, his was a life that was destined to change history. And then there was Ananias; we know nothing of his upbringing, education or social status. He seems a likely candidate for a life of obscurity. But these two lives (as is always the case) are not quite what they seem at first glance.

Grab a cup of coffee and together we’ll look a little deeper at the lives of these two individuals and of the grace they shared that was to transform history.

Although Saul had every advantage, he ended up using his sphere of influence as a tool of destruction. And as we read the story of Saul’s conversion in Acts chapter 9, he seems about as unlikely of a candidate for grace that our minds can conceive. We learn in Acts 8:1that he had not only been in complete agreement with Stephen’s stoning; he also launched a quest to eradicate every Christian from the face of the earth. The blood of the earliest of saints was clearly on his hands. He wasn’t even content to destroy the believers in Jerusalem; he’d procured papers to require the Damascus synagogues to participate in the persecution as well. But just as we might likely pronounce Saul as an unworthy recipient of grace…in steps the hero of his story; Jesus. As my one of my pastors shared; “just when Saul thought he was out chasing some important religious mission, the Holy Spirit was in reality chasing him!”

And thankfully that divine chase thing extends to us as well! When we are at our very worst, when we are the most unworthy, when we have laid waste to the prior extensions and expressions of God’s grace…in steps the hero of our story; Jesus! Yes, thankfully, we can never walk beyond the reach of God’s grace through the gift of His Holy Spirit who is always working to reveal Jesus to us. Because when it comes to God’s unmerited favor, none of us could ever “touch bottom” in His endless sea of grace. And just when we are most undeserving of grace, God may enter into our situation and change everything Himself…or He might just send an Ananias our way!

But before He sends Ananias to Saul, he is left for three days in the darkness-three long days of soul searching…or in this instance “Saul-searching”.  He was left to contemplate where he had been, what he had done and what lay ahead for his future. He must have been confused and frightened. We know from the Scriptures that he didn’t eat or drink anything for three days, so he was pretty shook up. Ever have any of those dark days in your life? Well the good news is that the Lord never wastes any of our difficult moments. Just like in the life of Saul; God will come to our aid, because He has the power and the heart to redeem our painful places.

Now sometimes rather than being a recipient of God’s grace, we are asked to be a vessel of it to someone else and when that happens, occasionally we hesitate. I think Ananias could relate…

God had graced him with a vision! This is pretty cool until you consider that his vision was all about someone else’s blessing. Now I’m guessing that Ananias would’ve normally been fine with that. I mean he was no doubt a godly man who was quick to extend grace to others, which may have been part of the reason he was selected in the first place. In fact, God was so confident of his obedience that He had ALREADY given Saul the vision of Ananias coming! It’s pretty hard to say no to that.

But when Jesus tells him to go, Ananias wavers for a moment. He begins to “inform” Jesus of all that Saul had done (just in case He’d missed it). He had to choose to be obedient despite any fears of repercussions or misgivings about Saul’s worthiness of God’s unmerited favor. Who knows, perhaps he also had to set aside any desire for personal justice over Saul’s heinous acts against his church family.

But in the end, he said YES! This is the Scripture’s only account of Ananias, but from his single act of courageous obedience he altered the world. The pouring out of grace to one undeserving individual served to change the entire world and some 2000 years later we are not only still talking about it, we are also still reaping the benefits of it!

So why did the Holy Spirit send Ananias? I mean He could’ve healed Saul without him, without anyone…but He didn’t. I believe that part of the reason was to get Saul connected to the body of believers that would quickly become his lifeblood. Saul; soon to be Paul, although he was God’s chosen vessel to his generation could not, would not be who he was called to be on his own and neither can we.

Yes, these two lives were irrevocably entwined; one without the other would’ve not only have relegated them to less than God’s best…the entire world would have experienced the loss that their shared grace has brought to us. Truly grace had the power to transform and it is a continually effective power that the Holy Spirit still desires to pour to and through us yet today!

In closing, I hope the question that has been at the very cusp of my heart all day, has found its way into yours as well. And that is; “Who is the “undeserving” person in my life that God is calling me to be a vessel of grace to?” Are there any undeserving candidates in your life? Probably. But today may we each set aside our fears, our past hurts and our sense of fairness and choose to be an extension of God’s grace to those who just like us are undeserving and yet desperately needy and then let’s trust and watch as God just might use that very grace to change the world!

Note: A sermon by two of my pastors; Shawn Franco and Travis Jones of Cornerstone Assembly of God were the original cause of this devotional. I encourage you to listen to their messages which offer different thoughts and perspectives about the gift of grace through the role of the Holy Spirit. They can be found at http://www.cornerstone.ag/ 
You will see the Media link near the top right of the site, click there, then on Listen To Sermons, then select the October 13th sermons.