“Now there was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias; and the Lord said to him in a vision, “Ananias.” And he said, “Here I am, Lord.” And the Lord said to him, “Get up and go to the street called Straight, and inquire at the house of Judas for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying, and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him, so that he might regain his sight.” But Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much harm he did to Your saints at Jerusalem; and here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on Your name”” (Acts 9:10-14).
Sometimes it's difficult to obey the Lord. The job God has for Ananias in Acts 9 certainly qualifies as difficult! To his credit, when Ananias initially receives the vision from the Lord, he responds promptly and willingly. But as God gets into the details of the mission, Ananias begins to have some reservations. God wants him to go minister to Saul of Tarsus! The very one we learned earlier in the chapter who was “...breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord” (Acts 9:1). Ananias has heard the reports. At this point in the vision, he begins to back-pedal a bit. If you read between the lines of his actual words, the sense seems to be: “God, are You sure You know what you are doing here?”
Does God know what He is doing? Of course. In a less stressful moment, I’m sure Ananias would readily affirm the same thing. But when faced with something difficult, it’s easy to begin to second guess the Lord. It happened to Moses (Exodus 3-4). It happened to Peter (Acts 10:13-14). It’s instructive here that God doesn’t reprimand Ananias for his questioning. But neither does He let him off the hook. We are to do and trust God for the rest.
God loves you!
Mike
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