Daily Devotion – February 3, 2022 – Dr. Pat Taylor Ellison
1 Corinthians 15:1-11
15:1 Now I would remind you, brothers and sisters, of the good news that I proclaimed to you, which you in turn received, in which also you stand,
15:2 through which also you are being saved, if you hold firmly to the message that I proclaimed to you–unless you have come to believe in vain.
15:3 For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures,
15:4 and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures,
15:5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.
15:6 Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died.
15:7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles.
15:8 Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.
15:9 For I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.
15:10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me has not been in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them–though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.
15:11 Whether then it was I or they, so we proclaim and so you have come to believe.
In this famous passage from Corinthians, Paul narrates in 6 verses Christ’s saving acts for us and all his appearances after his resurrection, right up to and including his dazzling appearance to Paul himself on the road to Damascus.
After describing all these saving deeds and post-resurrection appearances, amazing as they are, Paul turns to the subject of his own unworthiness, a kind of high contrast to the miracles of God. Finally, Paul says God performed yet another miracle and made an apostle out of a church persecutor. “By the grace of God I am what I am†(a new apostle).
Have you ever felt that you have received something marvelous, even miraculous, from the hand of God? How have you been living in gratitude for that miracle in your life? How might you tell someone in your life, as Paul did to the Corinthians, the goodness and faithfulness of God?
And how might we seek out, name, and claim the miracles that have taken place in our local churches and shaped our sense of mission and even identity? How good has God been to us? And how do we share God’s goodness out into the world that God loves?
Gracious God, Thank you for loving us. Thank you for doing miracles in our lives and in our local communities. Help us to live out our gratitude to you through our actions toward others. Help us to claim to someone who needs this good news that is it God’s grace to us that has worked miracles in our lives.  Amen.
