Who Rules?

On this day, who or what rules your life and mine?

Acts 9:1-9

If it is anything other than God, then we need to do a U-turn and humbly come back to God who is seeking us out.

Paul was not a man who did things by halves.

He followed his father’s footsteps as a Pharisee, strongly believing in their Bible, our Old Testament. He sought to follow its teachings, and where their scriptures didn’t spell out how something should be put into practice, Pharisees made up their own strict rules – hundreds of them.

Paul chose to study under the best: the leading Jewish scholar, Gamaliel, in Jerusalem. He shone at his studies and was regarded as a most promising young Jew.

As zealous as any of them, Paul was serious about serving God as a good Pharisee.

It was natural for him to feel it was his job to try to root believers out. Jesus did not fit the Pharisees traditional understandings of what the Messiah should do. So Saul was there supporting those who stoned Stephen to death. He persecuted believers far and wide.

And then Jesus met him! In an instant of blinding revelation, Paul’s world turned upside down. Leaving the Pharisees’ stultifying laws and traditions, he acknowledged Jesus as his Lord and gave his life wholeheartedly to listening to him, following him, serving him and sharing the Good News about him.

On this day, who or what rules your life and mine? This is a pivotal question, just as it was for Paul. Is it God, or is it people (or a person), or things, or success? If it is anything or anyone other than God, then we need to do a U-turn and humbly come back to God who is seeking us out.

John Peterson