Read Acts 9:1-12
In vv. 1-2 we encounter Saul, whom we know as the Apostle Paul. Yet, Saul was no Christian Apostle at this point in his life. He was “breathing out threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord.” Saul, though, was also a devout Jewish man and so was breathing out prayers to God. He reveals how devoutly he was committed to Judaism in Philippians 3:4-6, writing, “If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.”
Saul’s prayers were, nevertheless, offensive to God for they came from a place of self-sufficiency and self-righteousness. He was like the Pharisee in Jesus’ parable from Luke 18:9-12:
Jesus also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’
In Acts 9:3-8 we learn that God did a wonderful, merciful, and astounding work of grace in Saul’s life. The resurrected Christ manifested himself to Saul. In doing so he revealed that Saul had gotten everything wrong. Saul’s self-confidence was unfounded. Saul did not really understand God that well, nor did he grasp the depth of his sin. Saul didn’t understand his need for Christ to die in his place, and he didn’t understand Christ’s love for sinners. God graciously upended everything in Saul’s life so that Saul might no longer trust in himself, but completely depend upon Jesus Christ. God was, in his mighty work of grace, turning Saul into the other man in Jesus’ parable who “standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’”
Most of us have not had the saving experience of a blinding light and voice from heaven. If you believe in Christ, though, and do not trust in yourself for right relation to God then you also have been spiritually renewed and reborn by God’s Spirit (see John 3:1-8; Romans 6:17-18; Ephesians 2:1-10). What, then, is the most appropriate response to God’s work of merciful kindness in our life? We see the most appropriate response in v. 12. God tells Ananias, “behold, he is praying (9:11). The Christian life should be a life marked by prayer. Why? Prayer is the posture and practice of dependence upon God for all things. As the theologian B. B. Warfield once put it, “The soul in the attitude of prayer is like the flower turned upwards towards the sky and opening for the reception of the life-giving rain. What is prayer but an adoring appearing before God with a confession of our need and helplessness and a petition for his strength and blessing? What is prayer but a recognition of our dependence and a proclamation that all that we dependent creatures need is found abundantly and to spare in God … Therefore it is that we look upon the prayerful attitude as above all others the true Christian attitude – just because it is the attitude of devout and hopeful dependence on God.”
– To what degree have you come to understand that you are a believer only because God in his grace has made you so?
– How would you like to see your prayer life increase? Is there any way that others can help you?
– Have you signed-up for the “Praying Life” seminar March 28-29? This would be a wise next step if you can make it.
