One day I got a call that my youngest son Geoffrey was up to some mischief. Apparently, he had climbed to the top of our local McDonald’s and was sitting high atop the golden arches. I was so embarrassed that I wanted to respond with, “Oh, that’s not my son. I think you have the wrong number!” Unfortunately, he resembles me too much for anyone to believe that.
The truth is, we all do things that seem like great ideas in the moment, but later on we think, “What was I thinking?” That’s why we need people in our lives who can help us to see God’s will more clearly than we could see it on our own. The way the enemy gets us to follow his path is by getting us to stay stuck feeling that what we think is always right.
That’s where Paul was as he was walking down the road to Damascus. He had just gotten done condoning the death of a man for preaching the Gospel.
He was so deceived by what he felt that he actually thought he was doing the right thing. Isn’t that crazy? That’s why it’s so important to let God challenge and change our perspectives.
Here’s how God brought a better perspective to Paul. On his way to Damascus to persecute more Christians, God blinded him with a bright light. Then Jesus asked Paul why he was persecuting Him by persecuting His people.
The Bible says that “the men traveling with Saul stood there speechless; they heard the sound but did not see anyone.”
The first thing we learn from this is not to listen to people who are just as confused as you are. The people who were with Paul were incapable of seeing what God wanted seen, so they were not the ones to be leading him.
What friends are you listening to today? Are they mere feel-good friends or are they people who truly understand what God wants to do in your life?
Acts 9:10-12 continues the story. It tells how God gives Paul a vision of a man named Ananias. God had called Ananias to pray to be healed from his blindness.
In this part of the story, there is a second truth God showed Paul: your life goes best when you listen to people of proven reputation that God has called to mentor you. When you treat heavy the words they speak into your life, you will see more clearly as a result.
Finally, the story concludes with Paul’s sight being restored and his life being changed. Here’s the final lesson we can learn from this story: when we continually seek God and mentorships with those He has called us to, our sight will be restored, just as Paul’s was.
Isaiah 55:8-9 says that God’s thoughts for our lives are always better than our own. Let’s trade our vision for His, and work with Him to see our lives become more blessed than we could’ve ever imagined!
