Acts 9: God Chooses Saul, and He Can't Do Anything About It.

Saul was a man who was persecuting the church. He had some measure of authority and seems to have been one of the men in charge at the stoning of Stephen. He gets permission to go to the city of Damascus to imprison and persecute more Christians. But something happens on his way. He gets blind sided by Jesus. A bright light shines down on him and he talks to Jesus face to face. God has chosen him for a specific purpose and chooses to show him grace.
He changes his name to Paul and tells him that he will be a witness for God. Much of the rest of the books of Acts follows Paul. He is used by God to spread his message.
But for a moment look at the conversion of Paul. Paul is stopped b God in a miraculous way. Paul is rebelling against God, persecuting his church, and God intervenes and changes him, in a single moment. Paul doesn’t seem to have a choice. Left up to Paul, he would of continued to persecute the church. But God decides he wants something different for Paul. I say all of this because our conversions are the same. Left up to ourselves we would have nothing to do with God, but God decides to change us, and decides to give us grace. And ultimately, there is not anything we can do to stop the grace of God.