“Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.” So I said, “Who are You, Lord?” And He said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But rise and stand on your feet; for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to make you a minister and a witness both of the things which you have seen and of the things which I will yet reveal to you. I will deliver you from the Jewish people, as well as from the Gentiles, to whom I now send you, to open their eyes, in order to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Me.” (Acts 26:14-18 — New King James Version)
This is an account of Paul’s conversion. He had been a vicious persecutor of Christians and the church, throwing men and women in prison, and even stoning people to death like Stephen. He had been trained in the best Jewish seminaries, and despised the new teachings about Jesus and the church that was forming as a result of them. But clearly, God saw something special in him. Though he hated the church, he was a man on fire, ready to go to any length to be faithful to his beliefs. And so, true to form, God looked past his mistakes and saw what he could become.
As he was traveling on the road Damascus to arrest men and women in that city who believed in Jesus, he was knocked off his horse, blinded with a bright light, and heard the voice of the Lord Jesus. This was the beginning of a three day journey of faith that ended with Paul being saved, surrendering his life to the Jesus had he had recently despised, and becoming a man that did more to spread the news about Jesus than anyone else of his time.
Jesus told him that it was hard to kick against the goads. In those days, when a new ox was hitched to a wagon or plow it usually bucked and kicked in irritation. A goad was a piece of wood that hung down close to the ox’s heels that would teach it to stop kicking and submit to the yoke of the wagon or plow. Before Paul had his encounter with God on the Damascus road he had been resisting Him just like an ox, and God was telling him to surrender to Him and follow His direction. Much later, Paul wrote to Timothy explaining his previous way of life: “formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an arrogant man. But I received mercy…” (1 Timothy 1:13)
Don’t forget where you came from. God wants to use you like He did Paul, to bring people out of darkness into His light, to rescue people from Satan and lead them to God. But like Paul, your greatest weapon it to explain to people where you came from, and how God’s power transformed you — most importantly on the inside, your character and thoughts. It may be painful to remember the past, or embarrassing, but your story of how God rescued you brings glory to His name and shows others that there is hope for them too.
It’s so great to believe in a God that doesn’t give up on people who’ve made so many mistakes.
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