Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. (Proverbs 3:5 ESV)
Just how willing are we to “Trust and Obey” the call of the Lord?
Lessons from the book of Acts (#4)
Do you remember the story in Acts, chapter 9, where the Lord asked a disciple named Ananias to visit with a man named Saul? At that time Saul was known to be a vicious persecutor of Christians? Ananias truly believed that Saul wanted to imprison or even kill him for being a disciple of the Lord.
But Saul was ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison. (Acts 8:3 ESV)
But Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. (Acts 9:1-2 ESV)
Notice how Ananias chose to “Trust and Obey” the Lord, when the Lord gave him an assignment.
Now there was a disciple at Damascus (one of Saul’s targets) named Ananias. The Lord said to him in a vision, “Ananias.” And he said, “Here I am, Lord.”
And the Lord said to him, “Rise and go ….
Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints at Jerusalem
…. the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine
So Ananias departed and entered the house (where Saul was staying). (Read the story in Acts 9:1-19)
We know very little about this man named Ananias, except that he was “a devout man according to the law, well-spoken of by all the Jews ….,” (Acts 22:12). We also know that he was willing to be obedient to the Lord in a situation that he had seen as “life threating.” We know that the Lord used Ananias to minister to a man (Saul/Paul) who would “ open their eyes, (the eyes of the Gentiles) so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me. (Jesus)”(Acts 26:18)
Ananias, with one courageous act of obedience, was used by God in a way that impacted the lives of countless numbers of people for all of eternity.
The story of Ananias is a powerful illustration of someone “Trusting and Obeying” the Lord.
Hopefully this story will motivate all of us to always “Trust and Obey” the Lord.
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