Blinded by power and fueled by rage, Saul walked the road to Damascus with a taste for blood and domination on his mind. He planned to continue his rise in the ranks of the Jewish learned, and purge from among them the followers of the Way. As he and his men approached the city, they prepared to turn more agitators into prisoners, blasphemers into examples.
Until a light from Heaven and the voice of Jesus brought him to his knees.
And the spiritual darkness he had been walking in became quite literal, as his world was suddenly devoid of light.
It was in this darkness that he would finally learn to see.
Jesus met Saul on the middle of his hatred, on the road to another violent conquest.
And though Saul was the Chief of Sinners, Jesus called him by name.
If Jesus can reach down into the life of Saul, the great persecutor of the early Church, and transform him into the apostle Paul, what can He do with us?
Draw Near
In Psalm 139, we learn that God’s presence is everywhere, reaching the highest heights and descending into the deepest depths. “If I say, ‘surely the darkness will hide me and the light will become night around me,’ even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.”
Darkness is nothing for Christ, who became sin for us. Jesus took Saul’s darkness and introduced His Holy light. That light was enough to transform Saul’s life and cause him to recognize, as we can now read in Romans 4:8, that the Son of God died for us while we were still sinners.
What darkness is keeping you from God’s holy light? Because of Jesus’s work on the cross, our darkness is nothing to Him. It is in the depths of our sin that His light may shine brightest. Let’s draw near to Him and allow Him to illuminate our lives. He is willing and able to bring us out of our darkness and into His wonderful light.
My Heart's Overflow 