June 22, 2022 - Acts 9:4-5

“He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul! Saul! Why are you persecuting me?” “Who are you, lord?” Saul asked. And the voice replied, “I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting!”” Acts 9:4-5 NLT

Lord, when Saul had his encounter with you on the road to Damascus, it radically changed him. We want to encounter you like Saul did. In an instant, Saul found himself experiencing your Holiness and it sent him to the ground. We ask that you reveal more of yourself to us. I believe that Saul was a good Jew and really believed that he was honoring you in his endeavor to stop the spread of Christianity. But that one encounter with you showed him a part of you that he didn’t recognize. He asked, “Who are you, Lord?” He served you as his Lord but realized that he didn’t really know you. Lord, how much of what we think about you is incorrect or incomplete? How much of what we dismiss as not from you is actually you, or vice versa? Lord, we never want to discover our efforts for you were really working against you. Open our eyes to see you more clearly. Lord, we ask for you to come and reveal yourself to us.

Lord, when Saul saw you, he recognized just who he was. He recognized his lack of holiness. All his training and accomplishments were a failure compared to your holiness. Even with all the evil he did against you, in persecuting your followers, he wasn’t met with doom, but love. You opened his eyes and showed yourself to him. You showered your mercy and forgiveness over him, even in the correction. You forgave him and called him to a mighty purpose. Lord, you do the same for each of us. Show us who you are and then open our eyes to who you declare us to be. Give us an encounter that would strongly our confidence in you and who we are, yet mark us with humility. Let us go forward with the same passion and zeal Paul had for you.

In Jesus name, amen.