Have you ever wondered why suddenly people change? Take a look at Paul’s life. God constantly changes lives of people but you definitely need him in order to change yours. The people during Paul’s time saw and baffled why he suddenly changed from being the persecutor of the church to teach and preaching to people about the good news. Due to the fact that Paul was persecuting Jesus going to Damascus, God had made him blind, got his attention and changed his heart. Paul became a different type of person. Compared to the other Pharisees, he was God’s chosen one to be the first missionary around the Mediterranean Sea, persevering until God took his life in Rome. Paul was born in 5 AD., went to school of Gamaliel, Jerusalem. At about the age of 27, he became a Pharisee and later became the persecutor of the church. At 34 AD., he was converted while going to Damascus to persecute Christians. While studying throughout the book of Acts, I have seen Paul as a persistent, courageous and a patient person.

An example of Paul’s persistence can be seen in Acts 19:23. A silversmith named Demetrius had started a riot against Paul because of the fact that when people in Ephesus believed that od was the only god, Demetrius understood that he would go out of business because he was an idol maker. That didn’t stop Paul from teaching and preaching the gospel to the people. However, in Acts 16:25, Paul had been thrown into jail for taking an evil spirit out of a girl. The girl’s owners could no longer make business out of her. Paul didn’t give up on God even in jail. During the night, Silas and he were singing praise songs despite their circumstances, God set them free and made the jail collapse. In Acts 14:20 even though Paul got stoned and almost died, he still got back up on his feet. He could’ve said, “I’m giving up now, God. I’m going to die soon anyway.” The last example that I have observed is in Acts 15:36. Paul wanted to go back to the towns where he had preached to encourage the believers and stop them from going the wrong way.

The second character trait that I found about Paul is that he is a very courageous person. It shows in Acts 18:9, when God told Paul in a vision, “Do not be afraid; keep on speaking, do not be silent…” it just helped Paul to not be scared about telling people about Jesus. In Acts 13:10, he was in the proconsul’s presence, a powerful man who could hurt Paul. While the proconsul was listening to Paul, Elymas, the sorcerer, was trying to turn the proconsul from the faith. With the Holy Spirit in him, Paul was able to say things to the sorcerer in front of the proconsul, taking the risk that he might go to jail. In Acts 14:22 when Paul went back to Antioch to see how the believers there were doing, he said that all must experience many hardships in order to get in heaven. Paul, with the Holy Spirit in him, already had been going through lots of risks and hardships for Jesus. Another example is in Acts 16:22 where we read that Paul faced beatings and almost death but that never sopped preaching and telling people the word of God.

The last character trait out of many we can see in Paul is his patience. In Acts 9:7 when Paul (at the same time named Saul) could felt the presence of God and God had made Saul blind, he wasn’t impatient about his blindness instead he just waited for God to heal his eyes through Ananias. In Acts 19:20 Saul, now Paul started his journey and started to preach Jesus in Damascus. The people there were astonished thinking that Paul was still persecuting Christians and taking prisoners to the chief priests. In Acts 28:25 he got scared when the viper bit him and from the look on his face from the movie, you could kind of tell what he was thinking of. It seems like he was thinking, “God, am I going to die now? Yet you have said that I will be executed in Rome.” Maybe not, because God also appeared to him in a vision that he will make it to Rome. In Acts 24:26, Paul had been put in prison under the governor Felix due to the charges that the Jews made about him. After Paul’s trial, Felix found him interesting to talk to so he sent for Paul frequently. Had Paul not been patient, he wouldn’t have had the advantage to talk to Felix; He was willing to patiently stay in jail to be a witness for Jesus.

I have picked three out of many character traits of Paul because these are the ones that most standout to me. They are persistence, courage and patience. I believe that if the missionaries today who have been called by God, imitate Paul in persistence, courage and patience, the world could be more quickly won for Jesus.