What Are We Waiting For?

March 4, 2009

This morning I have been reading in Acts 22. Paul is speaking to a crowd under Roman guard. He has been arrested or rescued is more like it from the people who were beating him for supposedly teaching that the Jews shouldn’t obey the law.

Paul is giving his testimony bloodied and bruised before a crowd of people who have just tried to kill him. This is such an amazing scene. He’s speaking about an encounter with God that has turned his life upside down or should we say right side up. This experience has so transformed his life that it didn’t matter to him that the people were trying to kill him, he had to share what the Lord had done for him.

So many times I want to tell people about what I’ve been through with Danni. I want to tell people that I meet about God and his faithfulness but it’s such a heavy thing; people don’t know how to respond. God has given me a testimony and he wants me to share it. God has given you a testimony and he wants you to share it.

Paul didn’t care what response he got he just had to share. I love what Ananias says to Paul in Acts 22:16 “…And now what are you waiting for? Get up, be baptized and wash your sins away, calling on his name.”(NIV) What am I waiting for? Why do I hesitate? Because I don’t want to take the time or maybe I’m afraid of the response I might get. I’ve never been comfortable in awkward situations.

I love the zeal that is in Paul he really puts it all out there. He is the most least likely person to go and speak about Jesus because he was responsible for causing many followers of Christ to be imprisoned and even killed before he saw the light of Jesus.

Maybe you think… I am the least likely person to share Jesus with anyone because of my past but it’s part of your testimony…you have to have a past to build a testimony. If I didn’t go through Danni’s situation I would have no basis for speaking to anyone about cancer's effect or taking care of someone with cancer.

Ananias says… “wash your sins away, calling on his name.” Sins are no problem for God they can be washed away and forever forgotten by him in an instant if we call upon the name of Jesus. We make things too hard. God has made a way and we should access it! It cost Jesus his life to give us this privilege! Our debt of sin is paid in full! Thank you Jesus!

Paul didn’t let his past control his future, he had a mandate from the Lord as we all do. Matthew 28:18-20 “Then Jesus came to them and said, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

If Jesus came to them, he surely comes to us!

I think I will experiment…the next time my testimony comes to my lips from my heart I will share it and not worry about the circumstances. Who knows maybe this will become a habit! God has done a marvelous thing in my life, I’ve seen his faithfulness, goodness, loving-kindness, mercy and grace in operation in a tangible way…people must know! People must hear! Time is short!

My testimony is the only reason I am on this earth today. I’m saved so what else is there for me to be here but to help others find the way. I believe it is the same for you too if you are saved. God wants to lead others to himself through me and you otherwise we’d be in heaven like Danni.

Her life’s purpose had come to completion and she is with God now but her testimony lives on in me and everyone who shared in her journey. There is one more thing that I want to proclaim and that is the words of Jesus at the end of Matthew 28:20 “…And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

What a comfort to know he’s right there with us in the thick of things and he will be there until the end and beyond! What a wonderful Savior we have, we can trust him!