Daily Reading: Acts 22
Scripture Focus: And I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?’ And I answered, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ And he said to me, ‘I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting.’ (Acts 22:7-8)
Devotional Thought: This chapter of Acts provides us with a summary of Paul’s conversion from Saul, the man who had persecuted Christians. He stands before a Roman tribune and tells of his experience and interaction with the Living God. He admits his involvement with the imprisonment and beating of innocent Christians, specifically his approval of the killing of Stephen. He speaks as a man who knows that he has been offered unconditional forgiveness, even though he himself acknowledges that he is “the chief of sinners.”
When Jesus appeared to Paul (then Saul) on the road to Damascus, he identifies and describes himself in a somewhat surprising way. He says to Saul, “I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting.” Jesus speaks in the present tense – Saul had not persecuted him during his life on earth, but was currently persecuting him through the way he was treating Jesus’ followers.
What a comforting thought to us – when we are persecuted for our beliefs, or suffer as Christians, Jesus takes that suffering onto himself. We can rejoice as we share Christ’s sufferings, that we may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed (1 Pet 4:13). As our Savior, and as our heavenly Father, He claims our sorrows and trades our yokes for his own, for His yoke is easy and His burden is light (Matt 11:30). “For just as the sufferings of Christ overflow to us, so also through Christ our comfort overflows,” (2 Cor. 1:5).
Jenny
Prayer: Lord, help us to remember that we share in your sufferings to be glorified with you in the future. Help us to remember that you share in our sufferings, surrounding us with songs of deliverance as we trust in you.
Psalm of the Day: 9 We do not see our signs; there is no longer any prophet, and there is none among us who knows how long. 10 How long, O God, is the foe to scoff? Is the enemy to revile your name forever? 11 Why do you hold back your hand, your right hand? Take it from the fold of your garment and destroy them! 12 Yet God my King is from of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth. 13 You divided the sea by your might; you broke the heads of the sea monsters on the waters. 14 You crushed the heads of Leviathan; you gave him as food for the creatures of the wilderness. 15 You split open springs and brooks; you dried up ever-flowing streams. 16 Yours is the day, yours also the night; you have established the heavenly lights and the sun. 17 You have fixed all the boundaries of the earth; you have made summer and winter. (Psalms 74:9-17)
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