365 Days of the Great Names of God, Day 241: God of Paul

God of Paul

" 'Lord,' Ananias answered, 'I have heard many reports about this man and all the harm he has done to your holy people in Jerusalem. And he has come here with authority from the chief priests to arrest all who call on your name.' But the Lord said to Ananias, 'Go! This man is my chosen instrument to proclaim my name to the Gentiles and their kings and to the people of Israel. I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.' Then Ananias went to the house and entered it. Placing his hands on Saul, he said, 'Brother Saul, the Lord—Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here—has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit.' Immediately, something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes, and he could see again. He got up and was baptized." (Acts 9:13-18 NIV)

Saul—lover of the law and persecutor of Christians—went for a walk one day in search of more Christians to round up and imprison (or worse).

But one bright light, one temporary blindness, and one probing question from the Lord Himself later, and Paul was transformed into a lover of the Lord and a passionate preacher of the Good News.

God hand-picked Saul (whose Greek name was Paul) before the beginning of time to take the Gospel farther than anyone else had in his day—in particular, to the Gentile world.

If you're like me, you need a little refresher that, before Christ, the world had essentially been divided into two groups: Jews, God's chosen people; and Gentiles, or everybody else. But the grace of God was not only for one group of people: "It is too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth" (Isaiah 49:6). God's grace was for the whole world, and the whole world needed to hear about it.

Enter Saul/Paul, with a handful of qualifications that made him the perfect guy for the job.

For one thing, Paul was smart. He'd been educated by the famous teacher Gamaliel and knew the Old Testament inside out and upside down, so he was able to explain it in ways that made sense to his audience. And he knew that audience well, having grown up in Tarsus in the Greek world, unlike the rest of the disciples, who'd grown up in Judea and Samaria.

Paul was also passionate: passionately against the teachings of Christ before his conversion but passionately for them after it. And he was a Roman citizen, which gave him certain rights and freedoms he put to use for the cause of Christ.

Add to all this the newly constructed Roman roads, which made travel easier than it had ever been before, and the stage was set for God to do something big.

But for all these facts on Paul's very impressive resume, one detail about him still draws us to his teachings in a unique way all these centuries later: his thorn in the flesh (2 Corinthians 12:7).

Biblical scholars have spent hundreds of years trying to figure out what, exactly, Paul's "thorn" was, but I think God was intentionally vague for the same reason you're probably thinking: so we can all relate. Maybe it's just me, but I know I've thought a time or two, "Paul's thorn HAS to be my thorn, too!"

If God had told us that Paul's thorn was, for instance, some specific physical ailment, we might (and in my case, WOULD) read his words and think, "Yeah, well, you don't have my thorn. You don't know what it's like." But because his thorn could have been anything from a chronic physical illness to a mental challenge to a personality "quirk" to (dare I say it) a relational challenge, when he says things like, "I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation" and "I can do everything through him who gives me strength" and "I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus," we remember the thorn and think, "Well, then, I can learn and do and press on, too."

And in our learning and doing and pressing, God uses us as He did Paul: to proclaim His name to the ends of the earth.

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God, thank You for the way our thorns keep us dependent on You and Your strength. Help us to learn and do and press on today, for the glory of Your great name.