SCRIPTURE

Acts 26:9-11 (NASB95)

So then, I thought to myself that I had to do many things hostile to the name of Jesus of Nazareth.

10 And this is just what I did in Jerusalem; not only did I lock up many of the saints in prisons, having received authority from the chief priests, but also when they were being put to death I cast my vote against them.

11 And as I punished them often in all the synagogues, I tried to force them to blaspheme; and being furiously enraged at them, I kept pursuing them even to foreign cities.

COWBOY WISDOM

Paul didn’t dress up his past for King Agrippa. He told it straight — he had locked up believers, cast his vote for their deaths, and hunted them down even in foreign cities (Acts 26:9-11). That’s a hard testimony to give in front of royalty. But Paul knew something valuable: a testimony without the rough parts doesn’t help anybody.

Any horseman will tell you the horses with the roughest history often make the steadiest mounts once they’re broke right. A horse that’s never fought the bit, never bucked, never had to learn — you don’t really know what’s in him. Paul’s testimony carried weight precisely because of where he’d come from. He wrote in 1 Timothy 1:15, “It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all.” A man who was once the chief persecutor of the church became its chief missionary. That kind of turnaround preaches louder than any sermon.

Paul figured that if he was ever going to reach somebody caught in sin, it helped that he knew what it felt like to be caught himself. 2 Corinthians 5:17 tells us, “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.” Your past isn’t a disqualification — it’s often the very thing God uses to qualify you to reach somebody else riding the same rough trail you once rode.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION

1. What part of your testimony have you been hesitant to share because it doesn’t paint you in a good light?
2. Who in your life might need to hear about the “old things” God has changed in you?
3. How does Paul’s honesty about his past change the way you think about sharing your own story?

PRAYER FOCUS

Lord, thank You for making me a new creature and for not wasting anything from my past. Give me the courage to share my whole testimony, rough parts included, so that someone else riding a hard trail might see what You can do. Amen.