No Pride in Conversion!
“I have chosen him to tell foreigners, kings, and the people of Israel about me.”

Acts 9:15

When Saul was “blindsided” on the road to Damascus and was converted into the Apostle Paul, did he make a “decision for Christ?”

There is no record of Saul saying “yes” to Jesus. He saw and heard Jesus on the road, was blinded and then saw a vision of Ananias coming to him and laying hands on him so he could see again. There was little if any room for Saul to say “yes” or “no” to the invitation. It seems the rest of the army was staffed by volunteers, but Saul was drafted.

Could Saul have rejected Jesus on the road to Damascus? Of course he could have dismissed the vision as a bad dream. But when Jesus came into his life Saul didn’t say “no.”

Truthfully, every follower of Jesus Christ comes to faith the same way Paul did. We are living our lives self assured that we are “doing God’s will” when our Damascus Road Experience comes. No one else may see it or even know that it has happened, but Jesus stops us in our tracks and confronts us with the reality of Himself. It happened to me almost forty years ago, and I still remember that night with great clarity.

Following Jesus is not an intellectual decision made based on a set of facts from the Bible. Following Jesus is a response to a confrontation with the living Lord.

Preaching the Gospel and evangelism simply prepare the ground and sow the seed so that hearts may be changed when confronted with Jesus Christ. Otherwise the disciple is only committed to a story book character. It is no surprise that prayer is not part of the lives of many Christians. Why would I pray to a story book character?

So what do I do if I cannot remember my Damascus Road experience?

Look back and ask yourself one simple question. “When did I lose my sight?” Perhaps you are still sitting in the house waiting for Ananias to come and restore your sight.

If Paul had totally rejected Jesus on the road to Damascus he still would have been blinded and Ananias would never have come to restore his sight.

The conversion of Paul was not special and different from the rest of us. Followers are first of all blinded by Jesus and only have their sight restored when they say “yes” to Him as the Lord of their lives!