R. Tyler Scott
GOOD Morning, I hope you enjoy day ten of our devotion series.
Day Ten
Acts 9:10-18
Ananias
If we would all be honest, we are willing to serve anytime as long as it doesn’t affect our schedule, or it doesn’t become dangerous in any way. Unfortunately for our human way of thinking, God is not concerned with our feelings. He only wants our availability. Today we look at Ananias. Not the one who kept back part of his tithes and lied to the holy spirit and died along with his wife. This Ananias was the first servant to one of God’s great servants, Saul who would later be called Paul. Ananias was one of the early disciples and apparently was very willing to serve God. In scripture, when Jesus calls to him, Ananias immediately says I am here. Jesus tells him to go to the street called straight and go to Judas house and ask for Saul of Tarsus. Jesus also tells him that Saul is praying and he has seen a vision of Ananias laying hands on him and him receiving his sight. This immediately perplexes Ananias and he somewhat argues with Jesus by telling him that Saul is in Damascus with authority to arrest any Christians he can find. Jesus calms his nerves by telling him that Saul is a chosen vessel and will take the name of Jesus all over the world before Jews and Kings alike. Jesus also lets Ananias know that Saul is going to suffer for the kingdom. So Ananias went just as Jesus told him and found Saul just as he had said. He then laid his hands on Saul and proclaimed exactly what Jesus had said to him. When he did this, immediately the scales fell off Saul’s eyes and he could see. After he could see, he got up and went and was baptized.
Ananias was willing to serve the Lord in whatever way he asked him too. If he hadn’t been, Jesus wouldn’t have come to him in the first place. There are two distinct facts about Ananias and his service to God’s servant. The first is that he didn’t know he was going to do it. He was sitting in his house and saw a vision from the Lord that told him to go find Saul. Not only was he to go find Saul, but he was to lay his hands on him so that he could receive his sight again. Ananias at first did not want anything to do with Saul because he had heard about all the evils Saul had added to the Christians. In fact, I would be willing to believe that when he heard that Saul was blind, he was a little happy. Maybe Saul had persecuted some Christian that Ananias had known. The second distinct fact is that Ananias did exactly as Jesus said in the exact way he said to do it. Jesus gave the exact location of where Saul was and had already told him that a man named Ananias was coming to see him. You see, whether Ananias knew it or not, he was going to go lay hands on Saul because Jesus had already told Saul in a vision it was going to happen. Jesus doesn’t lie and he doesn’t make mistakes. Yes Ananias asked some questions and maybe he didn’t want to go at first, but Jesus knew he was going to go. When the Lord calls you to do a service for someone, it is not up to us to argue or make sense out of it. It is our job to do as Ananias did and go do what Jesus said to do.
Why is it we don’t understand that God is not concerned with our worries or our fears. We should always remember that he does not call us to a service that he hasn’t already worked out all the details beforehand. Saul was a very hard man who had done many horrible things to the early Christians, but Jesus knew that he was going to be one of his greatest servants and therefore other Christians would be able to be servants to him. Ananias is not mentioned anymore in this chapter nor in the rest of the bible. But what he did in his service to Saul through his obedience to Jesus Christ gave the world their greatest evangelist they had ever known. Yes, Saul gave his heart to Christ on the Damascus road. Even though he could not see with his eyes, God had let him see with his spirit that a man was coming to help him. Ananias gave a great blessing to Saul by laying hands on him and his sight returning. I believe that Ananias received just as great a blessing by seeing Jesus use him in such an awesome way.
We should always remember that when God calls us to do a service for his servants, we don’t have to worry about what God is going to do. We only have to be willing to do whatever he tells us to do and he will take care of the rest.
