Except For These Chains

Then Agrippa said to Paul, “You almost persuade me to become a Christian.”  And Paul said, “I would to God that not only you, but also all who hear me today, might become both almost and altogether such as I am, except for these chains.”

-Acts 26:29

The Apostle Paul was like any ordinary man of his time.  He was well-versed in all the scriptures and was very well-educated, yet before he was found by God, he persecuted the Christian believers in Jesus.  And in one day his life was radically transformed by the presence and glory of the Lord God!  During his encounter, the Lord spoke to him and appointed him as a servant and a witness to the Gentiles on his behalf.  This was most definitely a monumental calling from the Lord!  The glory of the Lord was so bright that Paul could not see afterwards until the Lord sent Ananias to Paul, making the scales fall off his eyes!  Since that time, he took up his cross, fulfilling precisely what the Lord told him to do.  Many days he was persecuted for his faith and held in prison, taking many lashings for the sake of Jesus!  He proved to many of his day that taking up your cross for Jesus as a Christian is not easy and is filled with much persecution and suffering in this life.  Yet he knew that all his temporary sufferings would gain for him an eternal life outweighing everything he had to endure!  Even when he had been held in prison for numerous days and nights for no reason, when he was brought before King Agrippa to make his appeal, his wish to God was that everyone would become like him except for his chains!  And that is my wish for you today; that you become everything the Lord desires you to be for him and for his glory!