Woke By Christ
Do you find that things are working well for you?
We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn within a large family. And those whom he predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified. What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else? Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? It is Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, "For your sake we are being killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered." No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. - Romans 8:28-39
For Paul, God is everything.
His life was turned upside down because God chose, through Jesus, to flip him from persecutor to disciple.
He had a true awakening. I guess you could say he was Woke by Christ!
Paul's revelation must have driven him crazy. Not only had he spent so much time trying to discredit the message he was now spreading, but he truly understood why people believed as he had that Jesus and his followers were blasphemers and renegades.
So, Jesus (God) chooses the messenger to be the one whose message was opposite the truth they wanted people to hear.
What a great strategy!
Paul's message, as he writes here, is that all things will work out for us through God, and that is even if those things are harder to accomplish than what we might have been doing before.
Paul was making headway in his persecution of the followers of Christ. He was taking them out, one by one.
But Jesus showed him he was doing the wrong thing, and so he had to find a way to be believed as a supporter of those he sought to imprison before.
And what is his message?
Sure, you are going to be persecuted for following Christ. I know, because I used to do that to you. But have faith. God is with you and He will protect you.
He believed that, because God spoke to him, but could all who he persecuted believe him?
When God taps us on the shoulder to get to work for Him, He gives us a real challenge, something we don't think we could do.
Look at those He called: Moses, David, Elijah, Mary...
When we choose to follow Christ, to be an instrument of God's peace in the world, we are taking on a big job. And the only way we are going to accomplish it is to believe.
More to come...