Monday, January 6, 2025
Scripture Readings
- Primary Reading: Acts 9-10
Key Verse
Acts 10:3 — “He saw in a vision evidently about the ninth hour of the day an angel of God coming in to him, and saying unto him, Cornelius.”
Devotional Thought
The new year has barely begun, and already the book of Acts shows us two men who could hardly be more different. Saul of Tarsus rides toward Damascus breathing threats and slaughter, letters from the high priest in hand, hunting men and women of “this way” to drag them bound to Jerusalem. Cornelius of Caesarea, a Roman centurion of the Italian band, kneels in prayer and gives alms, a devout man fearing God with all his house. One is a persecutor; the other, a Gentile. Yet before this day of reading is done, the risen Christ will claim them both—not because either deserved it, but because God’s grace runs ahead of us on every road.
Notice how personally the Lord takes His people’s suffering. “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?” Jesus does not ask why Saul persecutes the church; He asks why he persecutes *Him*. The Head in heaven feels what the body endures on earth. Then comes the mercy that stops us cold: the very man who watched Stephen’s garments laid at his feet is called “a chosen vessel,” and trembling Saul asks the only question that matters—”Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?” Meanwhile, Ananias must trust God enough to lay hands on the Terror of Damascus and call him “Brother Saul.” And in Joppa, Peter prays on a housetop, hungry, while God lowers a sheet full of unclean beasts and teaches him that what God hath cleansed, he must not call common. Three days blind, scales falling like winter ice melting, a centurion bowing at a fisherman’s feet, the Spirit falling on Gentiles while Peter yet speaks—this is the God we serve.
Perhaps your own year begins with questions rather than resolutions: a strained relationship, a habit of judgment, a heart that has quietly decided who is beyond reach. Acts 9 and 10 dismantle our categories. If Saul can become Paul and a Roman officer can receive the Holy Ghost before his baptismal water is even drawn, then no one you know is too far off. The same Lord who spoke on the Damascus road still interrupts journeys, still sends ordinary disciples like Ananias and Peter, still pours out His Spirit on those we assumed were outside the circle. Epiphanytide is the season of light shining where we did not expect it; this week, let it shine into your own assumptions.
Reflection
- Is there a person or group you have quietly written off as beyond God’s reach—and would you be willing, like Ananias, to go to them if He sent you?
- When God interrupts your plans, do you argue like Ananias and Peter once did, or do you answer, “Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?”
Prayer
Lord Jesus, Thou who didst shine upon Saul on the Damascus road and speak to Cornelius in his house of prayer, shine also upon us. Break the scales from our eyes and the hardness from our hearts. Make us willing like Ananias to call a former enemy “brother,” and teach us, like Peter, never to call common what Thou hast cleansed. We confess that we have drawn the circle of Thy mercy too small. Draw it wide in us this day, that we may see every man, woman, and child as one for whom Christ died. Fill us with Thy Holy Ghost, and let our prayers and alms come up as a memorial before Thee. Amen.