God Asked Him to Go to the One He Feared: a free devotion

Acts 9:10–11

"In Damascus there was a disciple named Ananias. The Lord called to him in a vision, "Ananias!" "Yes, Lord," he answered. The Lord told him, "Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying. In a vision he has seen a man named Ananias come and place his hands on him to restore his sight.""

Devotion

Ananias is one of the most overlooked people in the New Testament. He has twelve verses. He never planted a church, wrote a letter, or performed a recorded miracle. He just went to a house on a street that scared him and said "brother" to a man no one else would trust. And in doing so, he was the first human hand that touched the man who would write half the New Testament. Most of the kingdom is built by people like Ananias — ordinary disciples who hear the address, feel the fear, and go anyway.

Go deeper

"Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street"

The Ordered Step · poreuomai · G4198 · GREEK
To travel, to make a journey, to set out — often used in the Gospels for commands that require movement before understanding arrives

God did not give Ananias a briefing before the order. He gave him an address. The instruction was geographical before it was theological — go here, to this house, to this man. Most of the time, God's obedience calls are not issued with full explanations attached — they are issued with a direction and a next step. Ananias had questions (he voiced them honestly), but he also had a God who knew more than he did. That was enough.

📖 Acts 9:1–9 · The Man on the Road to Damascus

Saul of Tarsus had arrived in Damascus breathing threats. He had letters from the high priest authorizing him to arrest every follower of Jesus he could find and drag them back to Jerusalem in chains. The Damascus church knew who he was. They had every reason to be terrified.

Then everything changed on the road. A light from heaven blinded Saul. A voice asked why he was persecuting it. The man who had arrived to arrest disciples arrived instead at the house of Judas, blind, not eating or drinking, praying in the dark.

God saw this — and God called Ananias. Not a prominent apostle. Not a famous prophet. A disciple, in Damascus, whose name means "God is gracious." He was the person God chose to be the first touch of grace in Saul's new life.

"he is praying"

The Turned Heart · proseuchomai · G4336 · GREEK
To pray, to bring a request — but more fundamentally, to turn toward God; the word carries the sense of oriented attention, not just speech

The disciples saw Saul as a threat. God showed Ananias something entirely different: a man, blind and fasting, who had turned toward God. He is praying. Three words — and they reframed everything. God sees the change in a person before anyone else does, and sometimes he asks us to go toward the one everyone else is still running from. That is not naivety. It is the sight that comes from knowing who God is.

📖 Acts 9:11–12 · What God Sees That Others Miss

Ananias knew Saul's reputation. When God said to go find him, Ananias said plainly: "Lord, I have heard many reports about this man and all the harm he has done to your holy people in Jerusalem." He wasn't being difficult. He was being honest about what he knew.

God's response was not an argument about Saul's past. It was a window into Saul's present: he is praying. And here is what is coming for him. God gave Ananias a preview of the mission Saul would carry — the testimony before Gentiles and kings, the suffering that would mark his apostleship.

Ananias was being asked to see a man from the inside out, the way God sees people — not by their history but by where they are standing right now, and where they are going next.

"come and place his hands on him"

The Closing Distance · epitithēmi · G2007 · GREEK
To place upon, to lay on — a physical act of deliberate contact; in the New Testament it is consistently associated with healing, blessing, and the transmission of the Spirit

To lay hands on someone you fear is not a small thing. The hands that bless must get close enough to touch. Ananias could not heal Saul from a safe distance — the act required him to close the gap between his fear and his obedience. Real ministry, real love, real grace almost always requires us to close a distance we would rather keep open. That is the cost of the laying on of hands.

📖 Acts 9:17–19 · Brother Saul

Ananias went. He found the house. He found the man — blind, three days without food or water, waiting. And the first word Ananias said was: "Brother Saul."

Brother. Not "enemy." Not "suspect." Not "the man I have been warned about." Brother. Ananias named the relationship before the healing, claimed Saul as family before Saul had done a single thing to earn it. That word is one of the most astonishing acts of grace in the entire book of Acts.

Then he placed his hands on him and said: "The Lord — Jesus, who appeared to you on the road — has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit." Immediately something like scales fell from Saul's eyes. He got up, was baptized, and ate food. He was strengthened. Ananias had done his job.

Declarations

✦ I trust God's instruction even when I do not yet understand the full picture. (Proverbs 3:5–6)
✦ I will see people the way God sees them — by where they are now, not only where they have been. (1 Samuel 16:7)
✦ I am willing to close the distance between myself and the person God is calling me toward. (Acts 9:17)
✦ My hardest obedience can become someone else's defining moment of grace. (Acts 9:18)

Prayer

Father, I do not always want to go to the house on Straight Street. Give me the courage of Ananias — the willingness to move toward the person I fear, to say "brother" before I feel it, to place my hands on someone still dangerous and trust that you are already at work in them. Make my obedience quicker than my fear. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Think about it

Is there a person you are avoiding because of their past or their reputation? What would it look like to see them the way God saw Saul — already praying, already turning?

I will go to the house God points me to, and I will see the person there the way God sees them.

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