Turn

This mornings text was Acts 9:1-22.  The apostle Paul's conversion.  Man, I would have liked to been there and seen that!!  I had always imagined Paul and his associates riding horses to Damascus but it doesn't say that.  Actually from the text it appears they were walking, which I suppose shouldn't surprise me, they all walked alot back then.  I wonder what ever happened to the others who were with him?  They heard the Lord's voice as well.  Did they become followers of Christ also or did they choose not to believe and continue on in blindness?  True blindness.
Paul had been spiritually blind then was physically blinded and from that Christ gave him true sight.  In my devotions today it was talking about turning points in life.  Often we look on some of these turning points as terrible disasters, crises and unwanted change.  Yet God is at work through these times to turn us in a new and better direction.  One in which we can better glorify Him and also have life more abundantly.  He satisfies the true desires of our heart, even the ones we don't really even know until he shows us.  Oh, what a God we serve and have the privilege to call Friend!!
"God does all these things to a man - twice, even three times - to turn back his soul from the pit,." that the light of life may shine on him." Job 33:29-30 NIV

Crippled by Fear

Today I was reading John 5:1-15.  It spoke about the crippled man who had lain by the healing pool for 38 years and not been able to get in to be healed.  The cripple complained that he had no one to help him and how others always got in before him.  I had thought to myself, "Well just go in anyway!".  The whole premise of the healing pool was that the first one in would be healed but I thought, "well you could try it!", at the same time realizing this came from my belief that God can heal anytime and anyone whereas the cripple probably didn't have that same faith.  Then God spoke to my own heart and I realized that I have been doing the same thing.  I have spent many, many years complaining that others were already doing what I longed to (and felt God wanted me to) and doing it very successfully, so why should I bother?  What if I failed or was just deluding myself?
  The next few verses slapped me upside the head!  Christ says to the cripple "Get up!  Take up your mat and walk."  In other words; stop making excuses and get moving!  Quit looking at others and comparing yourself to them and their lives and do what you believe I AM is calling you to do!  Stop living in fear and trust God to provide the results. 
I was at a Beth Moore simulcast on the weekend and one of the points she made was "Fear is the crippler of a walking, talking miracle."  When we don't trust God and allow fear to cripple us we are allowing Satan ground he doesn't deserve.
Psalm 44:5 says "Through you we will push back our adversaries; through your name we will trample down those who rise up against us." (NASB)
O, Lord, remind me that you are more powerful than anything I fear.  Open my eyes to what holds me back from following you and through your name to push back and "GET UP!  TAKE UP MY MAT AND WALK!!"