Resilience — Flexibility - Friday
TODAY’S VERSE
Acts 8:36
And as they were going along the road they came to some water, and the eunuch said, "See, here is water! What prevents me from being baptized?" (ESV)
I have a friend who grew up moving between foster homes. She once told me the hardest part wasn't the instability itself; it was the constant fear she'd eventually do something to get sent away again. When a family finally adopted her permanently, she said it took years before she believed in her body, not just her head, that she wasn't just one mistake away from being asked to leave.
The Ethiopian eunuch in Acts 8 carried that fear on a national and spiritual scale. As both a foreigner and a eunuch, he was excluded by law from full worship in the temple. He had traveled a long, expensive journey to worship a God whose house, by design, kept people like him at arm's length. And yet tucked inside a scroll of Isaiah he'd probably paid a fortune to own were these words: "Let not the eunuch say, 'I am a dry tree'... I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off" (Isaiah 56:3–5). He may have read that promise a hundred times, wondering if it was too good to be true… if it was actually meant for someone like him.
Then Philip appears and tells him the good news about Jesus. And notice how the eunuch responds: "What prevents me?" Nothing does. Philip doesn't ask him to wait or qualify himself first. He baptizes him right there on the roadside, and the eunuch continues on his way rejoicing.
That's the heart of the gospel laid bare: No one is too far outside to be brought all the way in. Not because of your past. Not your body. Not your nationality, your reputation, or your record. If you've ever wondered whether God's welcome comes with an asterisk next to your name, this passage says otherwise.
APPLICATION
If you've been carrying a belief that you're the exception to God's grace, bring it to Him honestly in prayer this week. Saturate your mind with the truth of God’s Word.
PRAYER
Lord, thank You that Your welcome isn't limited by my past or my flaws. Help me believe, all the way down, that I belong to You. And give me Philip's eagerness to welcome others the way You have welcomed me.