Helping Hands

Ananias . . . entered the house, and after laying his hands on him said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road by which you were coming, has sent me.”
–Acts 9:17

God is a multitasker. While He was working in Paul’s life, He was also working in the lives of people who would come alongside Paul in his new ministry.

After Paul’s encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus, God commanded a believer named Ananias to find Paul and help him. At first, Ananias was hesitant. He said, in essence, “Are You out of Your mind, Lord? Haven’t You heard what this guy is doing to Christians?” But God said He had a plan for Paul, so Ananias obeyed. Notice the way Ananias greeted Paul: “Ananias . . . entered the house, and after laying his hands on him said, ‘Brother Saul’” (Acts 9:17). Paul’s original mission in Damascus was to exterminate Christians. But Ananias welcomed Paul into the fellowship of believers.

Paul’s ministry began right there in Damascus. He spent time with the very Christians he had come to imprison, and he started preaching in the local synagogues. Verse 21 says, “All those hearing him continued to be amazed, and were saying, ‘Is this not he who in Jerusalem destroyed those who called on this name?’”

Eventually, Paul learned about a plot to kill him, so he escaped and went to Jerusalem. Did the Christians in Jerusalem welcome Paul with a ticker tape parade? No, they were afraid of him. They thought he was trying to infiltrate the church. Look at verse 27: “But Barnabas took hold of him and brought him to the apostles and described to them how he had seen the Lord on the road, and that He had talked to him, and how at Damascus he had spoken out boldly in the name of Jesus.” Barnabas, the Son of Encouragement, came alongside Paul even when the other believers wouldn’t have anything to do with him. Because of Barnabas’s support, Paul began “moving about freely in Jerusalem, speaking out boldly in the name of the Lord” (v. 28).

Barnabas and Ananias played an important role in Paul’s life and ministry. Right now, God is working in the lives of people who will play an important role in your life–and He may be preparing you to come alongside somebody else. Will you be obedient to His leading?

Today’s devotion is adapted from “The Greatest Conversion in History,” by Dr. Robert Jeffress, 2021.

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. www.lockman.org.