Stand before the Lord

10.09.2021

Friday September 10, 2021

Back in Jerusalem, as I was praying in the temple, I fell into ecstasy and saw the Lord saying to me : Hurry, get out of Jerusalem quickly because they will not welcome your testimony about me. I replied : Lord, they know that I was going from synagogue to synagogue to put in prison and flog those who believed in you. In addition, when the blood of Stephen, your witness, was spilled, I myself was present, approving his execution and keeping the clothes of those who killed him. Then the Lord said to me : Go, for I will send you far away to the Gentiles. Acts 22: 17-21

The apostle Paul is in front of a fanatic and hostile crowd who want to put him to death. Calmly, he evokes the privileged moment when he was able to dialogue with the Lord on the subject of his mission.

Yes, certainly Paul remembers the sweetness of this encounter with his Savior. Nothing to do with his first confrontation on the road to Damascus, where he was thrown to the ground, struck with terror. In Jerusalem he is at peace inside, he has no more fear. Yet he persecuted Christians so much that he called himself the first of sinners (1 Timothy 1:15). But now he has no more sins on his conscience : he has been completely cleansed by the work of Jesus on the cross. It is total peace with God.

This peace does not come from exceptional piety, nor from long Christian experience : it is the peace that God gives to those who believe. When we stand before the Lord, we also enjoy that peace of heart and conscience, based on the righteousness that Christ has given us.

Paul sees the Lord before him and listens to his warning. Out of love for his Jewish brothers, he asks him, with total freedom, to let him evangelize in Jerusalem. No, Jesus answers, I know that the Jews will not receive your testimony and I have entrusted you with another mission, a mission of the first magnitude : that of bringing the good news to the nations.

When we pray to the Lord, let us do it as if he was before us. Let us speak to him with full freedom, in peace, in the inner assurance of God's forgiveness (Hebrews 10:22).

Source (Pleasing the Lord)