Hidden Heroes: Ananias, Prayed and Obeyed

by David Chadwick

The Bible is full of good guys and bad guys. Heroes and villains. Some are well known. Others are more hidden. One of my favorite things to do is to look for some of the Bible’s hidden heroes. The people who might otherwise go unnoticed, but still carry great significance in God’s story.

Ananias is our next hidden hero.

Ananias was a follower of Jesus in Damascus. His story is found in Acts 9. After Paul’s dramatic conversion, God told Ananias to go to Paul and lay hands on him in order to restore Paul’s sight. After that, Ananias was to tell Paul that he carried the call of God on his life to preach the Gospel to the Gentiles.

At first, Ananias objected. As you can imagine, he knew of all of Paul’s persecutions of Christians and probably thought he would be the next on Paul’s list of accomplished murders. Nonetheless, Ananias chose to obey God. He went to Paul and prayed for his sight to be restored. Not only did it miraculously return, but Paul was then filled with the Holy Spirit and sent out in ministry.

The divine appointment between Ananias and Paul launched Paul into his calling, where millions of people came to faith in Jesus!

Maybe you have been running far from God. Like Paul, you may have a divine appointment awaiting you. If so, today is the day to respond to God’s voice and to yield your life to Jesus.

Or maybe you have someone in your life who has been walking in rebellion and God wants to use you to encounter him or her with his love. You may be the one he uses to prompt that person to salvation. Listen for God’s voice and respond to his call. You might see God work a miracle. You may never receive the credit this side of eternity, but you may be the one God uses to change a life who ends up changing the world.

God is looking for people who are available. Stop. Listen. Go and obey. Give sight to the blind – especially in a spiritual sense. Who knows the kingdom impact you might have!