EXPAND TO READ: ACTS 7 (HCSB)
PERSONAL JOURNAL:
SIN (verse 51): Wow! After a very quick and informative history lesson on Moses, You then proceed to convict me deeply, Father. In this one verse, I felt like You were yelling me about my behavior at times. You are saying my heart and ears are uncircumcised and that I am always resisting the Holy Spirit. How so very true this is and I am deeply sorry for this, Father. Please forgive me for so much resistance on my part in my faith. Forgive me for not circumcising my fleshly self from my heart and ears so that I can truly feel and hear what the Holy Spirit is saying to me. Help me to be better in my faith, Father, so that I can be one with the Holy Spirit through all things this life tries to throw at me.
PROMISE (verse 37): You keep repeating this promise and I keep finding it just as amazing as the first time I heard it simply because of how You were consistent in sharing this promise with all of Your “top” followers throughout time. The promise is of Jesus’ coming and You made this promise to Moses, who was well before the birth of Jesus. You continued to make this promise to many others throughout the Scripture and I am so grateful for Your consistency and repetitiveness. If it weren’t for Your consistency and repetitiveness, then when He did arrive it may not have been as impactful to those around Him and for generations to come. Since You embedded the promise into many generations preceding Jesus, His arrival was well known and already anticipated, but was also viewed as a fulfillment of Your promise after the fact by many generations following Jesus. Thank You, Father!
ATTITUDE (verses 54-60): Stephen was extremely bold here. He was essentially being put on trial, in a sense, similar to how Jesus was—by a bunch of liars and deceivers. He was bold in the fact that everything he said back to them pointed back to God and he continued to stand firm in his faith through all of it. The crowd was becoming enraged and instead of fleeing, cowering, or giving into them, he stood strong in his faith and remained consistent in what You expected of him in that moment. He even mimicked Jesus in his final breath, in a sense, as they were stoning him when he said as his last words “Lord, do not charge them with this sin!” How amazingly powerful is this? I cannot imagine the physical pain he was feeling in the moment as rocks were being hurled at him by the crowd. Yet, in his very last breath he remained firm in his faith by pleading for the grace You have shown him to be granted to those in the crowd; by pleading for the mercy You have shown him to be granted to those in the crowd. He didn’t ask for redemption or for You to strike them down. Instead, he asked, in different words, the same thing that Jesus asked as He was approaching His fleshly death: “Father, forgive them, because they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34 HCSB). Help me to live in a similar manner, Father, by always standing firm and bold in my faith no matter what is going on around me. Help me to truly embrace Your will for my life, so that I may have the righteous discernment in the moment to be able to determine what exactly You want of me in those tense moments like the one described here.
COMMAND (verse 51): Not only is this my heart’s conviction today, but I also feel it is Your command to Your true followers. When we circumcise our flesh, that is not a physical act, but a Spiritual one. You want us to remove our fleshly selves so that we may be born again and live in the Spiritual one You have blessed us with. You command us to live with “uncircumcised hearts and ears” so that we can hear the Holy Spirit, who dwells within us, without resistance. Help me to be better at following this command, Father. Help me to be better at living in a way that reflects a circumcised heart and ears. Help me to be better at living in a way that reflects minimal to no resistance against hearing the Holy Spirit in my life. Help me to be better at living in Your will for my life and not my own.
EXAMPLE (verses 24-34): Such an amazing example is giving here about Your timing versus my own. Moses, thinking that he was ready to be God’s vessel for his people’s deliverance, realized that Your people did not see him the same way in that moment. As a result, Moses chose to flee into isolation. He thought his time had come to give Your people deliverance through him, but it was not yet his time. He tried to initially live for Your will over his life in his own timing and You delivered him the reality that it is not our timing but Yours that is important for Your kingdom. Another 40 years had passed while he was sitting in a self-inflicted isolation and You approached him. You revealed to him that Your timing has come for him to be the deliverance to Your people in Egypt. This serves as a reminder that sometimes we have Your intent and will for our life correct but potentially not the timing. We must learn to be patient in our lives as we discern Your will for it, so that we do not try to do the things You want us to do out of order or maybe too soon/late. We must be patient and realize that You will grant us the moments and opportunities to perform Your will for our lives as You are ready for us to do so. Thank You, Father, for this amazing example that I never thought of prior to reading it in this way.
*DAILY NOTE: This was quite the lengthy chapter in Acts, but I am grateful I opted to read the entire thing all at once. So much revelation and examples were given to me through this chapter and I am grateful for the lessons You’ve taught me today, Father. Thank You for revealing to me several examples to live by concerning Your timing of things as well as living strong and bold in my faith. Thank You for revealing to me the importance of circumcising my heart and ears so that I can truly feel and hear the Holy Spirit in my life. Thank You also for the Holy Spirit as a great mentor and interpreter for me personally. My prayer today is that I get better at being patient for Your timing in my life, but also that I remain firm in my faith no matter what trials and tribulations this world tries to put in my path. Thank You, Father, for always sharing with me Your wisdom even if I may not be willing to listen fully at times.
EXPAND TO READ: GENERAL NOTE FOR MY QUIET TIMES
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