My Enlightened Morning...

I like being enlightened.

 

I love having the Aha! moments (they are few and far between for me, but that makes me appreciate the few times things actually click for me).

 

Today I was enlightened.

 

I am reading through the book of Acts for the second time this month. As my fiancé and I were discussing our devotions a few weeks ago, I was challenged and convicted by how slow and thoughtful he is in his Bible reading. He pours and mulls over each verse, desiring to glean the most he possibly can from God's Word.  In listening to him, I realized how quickly I sometimes pass through my Scripture reading. I enjoy my devotions and usually get something out of what I read, but sometimes I speed through and mentally congratulate myself for reading another chapter.

So, I decided to start back in Acts and re-read it. I want to gain the most I can from it...and already I am amazed at what I missed before!  I was reading this morning and I found:

Acts 4:13
   When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary  men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.

Wow. I don't know how many times I must have read this verse but never really stopped to think about what it meant.

Peter and John were nobodies. They weren't the smartest or the most dynamic. They didn't have a great education-if any-and were just average men of the day. And yet, it says the elders and teachers of the law (those who were schooled and extraordinary men in that time), were astonished! And somehow, these men could tell that Peter and John, had been with Jesus. They saw their courage-courage that could only be given from Christ.

That is amazing.

I want to be like that. I want people to be able to tell-just by looking at me-that I have been with Jesus.

I am ordinary. I am probably by all accounts, below average. There is nothing amazing, spectacular or extraordinary about me. I have very few talents and abilities and my mental capacity is comparable to that of a flea...

But there is hope!

 I am so excited I am dancing on the inside!

Some of the greatest men in the history of the world were ordinary! And yet they were paid the biggest compliment of all-everyone-even those who hated them- could see that they had been with Jesus.