Paul : My Homeboy

So, don’t tell Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, or any of the other guys… but Paul is my favorite.

“Why Amanda? Please share?”  

Why, I’d love to! (:

We all know the story of Paul but let me recap, just in case if you’ve forgotten:

Paul, used to be Saul. He was one of the biggest persecutors of Christians back in the day. Most popular for being the guy that held the other dude’s coats while they stoned Steven to death. Well, one day God got tired of it and knocked him off his high horse (literally) and he was later converted as a Christian. (That’s in Acts 7-9ish, my version was a TAD condensed ;))

Paul is a shining example of how God can turn somebody’s life around. Maybe I like Paul so much because I feel connected to him for having a messed up past… but don’t we all have THOSE things in our past? We’ve all done thing that we regret and I don’t know about y’all, but sometimes I still feel guilty and ashamed of it all. And that’s where I desire to be more like Paul: He was like “Yeah, I used to be that guy but look how God has changed me!” I wish I had that kind of courage. How silly is it to feel guilt and shame about things when Jesus took care of all that baggage- he did away with it. So, here I am feeling guilty when His policy is pretty much forgive and forget. I think we can all learn a lesson from Paul to take our past trials and turn them into something that glorifies God.

And maybe you’re still in the midst of your shameful actions. If you are, check this out: “….being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 1:6) People in this world may give up on you but, in the end, it’s okay because the One that truly matters isn’t going to give up on you. He knows every fiber of your being and he knows what a wonderful person you are and he’s just waiting to be able to use you to affect the lives of others.

So submit yourself to Him, friends! It’s worth it, I promise.

And like Paul always said: Be joyful, be thankful