Daily Devotions

Acts 9:1-5 And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest, 2 And desired of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem. 3 And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven: 4 And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? 5 And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.

Many times, perhaps most of the time, life is hard in this world. Life was very hard for this man named Saul according to Jesus. (Verse 5) We tend to think that Saul had it made before he met Jesus and from the outside it may seem as if he did. He was a Pharisee of the Jews religion, he was a very powerful man, he was also a free man, a Roman. He was most likely a wealthy man as well. But he must have been a tormented man, life must have been hard for him. Saul knew the Scriptures, he knew the Old Testament, he would have known of Jesus and the claims that He was and is the Messiah of Israel, would have known of all the miracles of Christ and could have seen many of them himself, being a Pharisee he would have been in Jerusalem for Passover and witness the crucifixion of Jesus, he could have with the High Priest when Jesus was condemned and turned over to Rome. He heard the preaching of Peter and then Stephen and was there when that man looked into heaven and saw Jesus at the right hand of God. All these things would have been working on Saul. Little wonder then why he was working so hard to destroy the church. He must have been a tormented man. Life was hard for Saul. (Verse 5) The pricks were long sharpened pole placed on the underside of a cart with the sharp end pointing to the front. If an ox tried to kick back on the cart he kicked the pricks and injured itself, it was hard to kick against the pricks. Life is hard for many today, especially the lost, but for many Christians as well. Could it be that we stand kicking against the very thing, the very one who can help us? More tomorrow.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 29th, 2013 at 5:27 am and is filed under Daily Devotions. You can skip to the end and leave a response.