When others are wholly enraged at us, what do we see? Are we even focused on God? Consider Today’s Holy Nougat.
Acts of the Apostles 7:54-55 CEB
[54] Once the council members heard these words, they were enraged and began to grind their teeth at Stephen.
[55] But Stephen, enabled by the Holy Spirit, stared into heaven and saw God’s majesty and Jesus standing at God’s right side.
Ground Teeth and Heavenly Gazes
The meteoric rise and fall of Stephen the deacon is one which many of us would prefer to miss. For those who know about him, we realize that he’s one of those who definitely was gone too soon. Yet, his life could have potentially been the catalyst for Saul’s transformation. Stephen’s trial framed the possibility for Saul and many others to hear the Gospel as they probably never had heard it told to them before.
Hearing that message proved to be a challenge to his detractors, although Stephen was non-confrontational. It set their hearts ablaze and stirred their consciences. Therein lay the beginning of Stephen’s demise. Had his detractors been annoyed with him previously, they were totally aggrieved then. So much so that they were grinding their teeth in frustration. Inadvertently, Stephen may have signed his death verdict.
It is hard to imagine that Stephen was in the same room as those accusers. As though insensitive to his accusers and prosecutors’ anger, Stephen blithely shared the Gospel. It was as though he knew he had one chance to share what he knew; and Stephen was not wasting it! Brother took them from the proverbial Genesis to Revelation of the Gospel. Not one second was lost. Moreover, the angrier his prosecutors got, the more focused Stephen was on Christ.
Self-Check
What is our focus when we face great trials and false accusations?
Application
Siblings, God gave Stephen a gift beyond measure in those moments. There was little doubt Stephen was under the anointing of God’s Spirit. If the point had been lost on us, the Lucan writer indicates that Stephen was seeing God in all God’s glory, as well as Jesus (whom Stephen might not have met in the flesh). A very different perspective from those whom he was before.
Did you have that moment while reading when you wanted to tell Stephen that his vision could have signalled that the end was very near? I certainly did. Although it had registered prior, the implications of the Heavenly vision were not lost on me. Even today, there are those who maintain that some believers have a glimpse of glory just before death. Yet it is also possible that this was an assurance to Stephen that God was with him.
What did Stephen do with the vision? More critically, what would we do with such a vision? The men were angry. He saw God in all God’s glory. When we face our very own share of persecutors and prosecutors in our lifetime, our Nougat challenges us to not only seek God’s face but also to see God with us in the moment.
Come what may, whether life, death, or languishing, I pray we choose to seek and see God in all circumstances.
Point to Ponder
Might we seek to see God in the good moments so that we get in the habit of seeing God always?
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May all we seek be found in Christ
