In Hebrews 11:6, God said He is only pleased with faith. Faith demands that we accept the word of God regardless of our opinion. God’s word or thought is different from ours (man) – Is 55: 6–8. Because of this, it is often difficult to accept, left alone follow God’s word.
In Acts 9, Saul (Paul) persecuted the church and the apostles; he even obtained permission to persecute the Christians in Damascus. On his way there, Jesus revealed himself to him and told him he would be told what to do.
It was then revealed to Ananias who was a disciple to go meet Saul.
While the power of God has been demonstrated in the meeting between Jesus and Saul, my focus, however, would be on Ananias.
Ananias knows Saul as his enemy- somebody who wants to kill him. But God says go to him “No lord, I should be hiding because this guy wants to kill me.”. That could have been my response if it were me.
There! My thoughts against the thoughts of God. What Ananias did not know is that God had already humbled or prepared Saul to listen to him. After God explained to him, he received the heart to go meet Paul.
You see brethren and sisters, when God or church gives us a task, in the face of it, we must go accomplish it. But actually, God himself is working behind the scenes to attain such tasks. God just wants to see our faith by just acting according to the word.
A similar case presents itself in Acts 10 concerning Cornelius and Simon Peter. Cornelius was a gentile and Peter a Jew. Jews normally consider non-Jews unclean. Now, Cornelius who tried to live piously was not saved and God wanted Peter to preach the gospel to him. God, being aware of all the aforementioned, met Cornelius and Peter separately and prepared them for their encounter, and then asked Cornelius to send people to meet Peter. Peter preached the gospel and Cornelius and his house were saved.
God works behind the scenes. The word of God is not just empty words, but they have power as well.
God wants us to see the results of this power to build us strong for the upcoming challenges ahead. We must accept the word as is to see the glory of God. In such doing, I believe our hearts would be full of testimonies and thanksgiving.
Keep Hope Alive!
