One Extraordinary Life

“But the Lord said, “Go, for Saul is my chosen instrument to take my message to the Gentiles and to kings, as well as to the people of Israel.”

Acts 9:15


I wrote a book a number of years ago titled, “One Extraordinary Life” about our daughters best friend at the time, Danielle, who died at the age of 17 in a car accident just a few minutes after leaving our home one Friday night. She was in many ways just an ordinary teenage girl preparing for her senior year of high school which was to begin in less than a week, but in the hands of God she was one extraordinary life as she was seeking each day how she might bring glory to the name of Jesus Christ. I thought a lot about her this week as I was teaching from Acts chapter 9. Considered to be one of the greatest chapters in all the Bible, Acts 9 focuses on the radical conversion story of a man from Tarsus whose name was Saul and we know today as the apostle Paul.

Saul came to understand what Danielle believed in her own life and what made her so effective in living her life to the fullest. It’s what I hope and pray you understand from reading this devotional today too. Danielle understood like Saul learned that day, she was chosen by God as are you! Yes, loved one, of all the things I could pray for you today its this, that you would know at the deepest place of your heart and in your soul that you have been chosen by God, you are His chosen instrument. In other words there is a plan and purpose for your life that was set in motion even before God created the heavens and the earth.

Every person who comes to Christ is an extraordinary life, a life so valuable to God that He paid for its redemption with the precious blood of His One and Only Son. In other words, our worth to God is incalculable. You and I are intricate pieces of God’s eternal purpose and plan that are unfolding day by day. Today, as you walk with God do so knowing it’s no accident that you are alive. Like Queen Esther, you too were born for such a time as this! Enjoy reading your bible today like the love story that it is. Pray to the One who would rather have died than lived without you, and every time you look in the mirror or see your shadow, hear your name or write or read it somewhere let it remind you, let it sink deep within that you have been and you are, chosen by God!

“I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.”

Ephesians 3:16–19


I LOVE YOU!