“And one Ananias, a devout man according to the law, well spoken of by all the Jews who lived there, came to me, and standing by me said to me, ‘Brother Saul, receive your sight.’ And at that very hour I received my sight and saw him.” (Acts 22:12-13)
St Paul (originally Saul) is well known and prolific in his writings in the New Testament, but have you ever heard of Ananias? Actually you may have heard about a fella called Ananias and his wife Sapphira who lied about their gifts and promptly dropped dead in the early days of the church in Jerusalem, but I’m talking about a different Ananias, from Damascus. We know very little about him from the Bible other than he was from Damascus and Paul said he was “a devout man.” But then one day God used him to restore the sight of Saul who would then go on to became one of the most influential early Christian apostles, shifting the course of history. The action of Ananias was instrumental in God’s plan for the spreading of the early church and in causing a large chunk of the New Testament to be written. This simple act by a devout man was God’s key to unlock a new chapter of history.
.So, I’ve been pondering (as I’m prone to do), that maybe God’s purpose for us in the day-to-day is to focus on being simply faithful in the ordinary. Like Ananias who was “a devout man,” we also need to be devout. We need to think about God, read the Bible, pray, worship, trust in Jesus, seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit etc... We need to love God and love people every day. We might not see unusual or miraculous things happening all the time, at least not in a spectacular way, but day by day we can grow in our knowledge of God, trusting in His provision, protection, and guidance.
But, also like Ananias, we need to be ready for God to ask us to do something extraordinary or unexpected. It may be one thing you do in your whole lifetime that shifts the course of history, or it may be several smaller acts of faithfulness that have surprising and unexpected outcomes that only God could orchestrate. Either way we need to be ready, and open for Him to call us to do it in His good timing.
So my challenge to you (and to me!) is to be faithful in the ordinary, but be ready for the extraordinary!
