His Chosen Instrument

Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you.
–Jeremiah 1:5

After his encounter with the risen Savior, Paul’s life was transformed. Paul said, “What shall I do, Lord?” (Acts 22:10). God told him to go to Damascus, where Paul had been going for the purpose of persecuting Christians. But God had a new plan for Paul in Damascus.

Look at what God said about Paul in Acts 9:15: “He is a chosen instrument of Mine, to bear My name before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel.” Before Paul’s conversion, before he was even in his mother’s womb, God had selected Paul as His instrument.

One afternoon in 2007, I was sitting in my office at the church I was serving in Wichita Falls, Texas, when I received a phone call. It was the chairman of the pastor search committee at First Baptist Dallas, the church I had grown up in. He said, “We believe you’re the one God has chosen to be our pastor.” I was leaving the next day on a two-week trip retracing Paul’s second missionary journey, so we agreed to talk more when I got home.

On the trip, I prayed about whether to return to First Dallas. I thought, This seems too easy. Is this really God’s will? But as our group toured Philippi, our guide said something I will never forget: “God used every part of Paul’s life, even the part before his conversion, to prepare him for the assignment God had for him.” When she said this, it was like a thunderbolt from heaven. God was saying to me, “Robert, when you go to Dallas, people will say you became the pastor because you grew up in the church, but the truth is just the opposite: I planned for you to grow up in that church so you could become the pastor.” God used everything in my life to prepare me for my future assignment.

That’s true in your life as well. God doesn’t waste experiences in your life. Psalm 139:16 says, “In Your book were all written the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them.” Before you were conceived, God had a plan for you, and everything in your life–including the part of your life before you were saved–is working together to fulfill God’s plan.

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.