Stephen
FORGIVENESS :
This is a
very important lesson to learn from Stephen as it is one that human beings struggle
with so very often. Beyond the benefits attached to forgiveness, it reflects
the God in all men. A heart that can forgive is a heart that knows it has been
forgiven, a heart that has known how much of God it houses.
Acts 6:60: “Then he fell on his knees and
cried out, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.”
This was the prayer Stephen said as he was
being stoned to death. Right amid being put to death for the
truth, his last prayers, much like that of Jesus on the cross, was that which
absolved his killers of the effects of their transgressions, fulfilling what Jesus
Christ said in Luke 6:27-28:
“But to you
who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you,
bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.”
We cannot say we have known Christ if we do
not have space for grace and mercy. It is beyond being a regular church goer or
someone who boasts of keeping most of the ten commandments or all. It isn’t
just forgiving those we love or that have been good to us more times than not.
Matthew 5:43-45:
“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbour
and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who
persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven”.
A heart
that does not love all, has not known God, a heart that does not forgive, has
not known love.
The
greatest demonstration of love was that while we were deep in sin, not asking
for forgiveness or even acknowledging our wrongs, God forgave us and came to
die so that this could be revealed.
2. Learn to Speak the Truth
When
Stephen was asked “Are these charges true?” in Acts 7, by the high priest, in
relation to the claims he made about God, he gave them an even more detailed
account of All that he had truly come to know God as, even though he knew he risked
being put to death for it. He stuck to the truth irrespective of the outcome of
it. Many a time, when faced with situations that threaten us or things we hold
dear, we choose what seems to be the safer outcome as opposed to the right
thing to do, even when they do not threaten to take our lives. One of the
problems with this is that, when we resort to telling lies especially out of
fear, we subtly insist to ourselves that we do not believe in whatever the
truth is. The more you insist that telling lies yields better results, the more
you desensitize yourself to the power of the truth.
3. Be Bold and Courageous
Another
thing to note about Stephen was his boldness, it was because he was bold and
had no fear that he could speak the truth without fear of consequence. More
importantly to note was the fact that the boldness he had came from the
knowledge that it was Christ who was the boldness and speaking in him/through
him. That is why it was recorded that Stephen in Acts 7:55, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the
glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.
He knew he
was carried by the spirit of God, therefore he was bold to present himself and
let the Holy spirit speak through him. It is easy to feel inadequate or full of
fear if we depend on our own selves alone when faced with challenges of life,
but when we yield to the spirit of God that we all so graciously carry and that
we all truly are, we lose fear because we know that God cannot be defeated in
any way.
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