Day 13

“These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised. God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.” — HEBREWS 11:39-40

Many who come to a saving faith in Christ wrongly assume that their faith may bring them recognized success. They assume that with God on their side they will never be beaten, never overcome and never hurt, but that’s not true of Scripture.

The writer of Hebrews gives several examples of people commended for their faith who were persecuted, suffered and even died in their faith. We cannot assume that if we have faith in God we’ll avoid all the hardships in life – that we’ll never get sick, depressed, suffer loss or tragedy. Stephen was the first martyr in the book of Acts who was stoned to death. Before they dragged him out, he looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. (Acts 7:55) This is interesting because Jesus is normally seated at the right of the Father. Some have said He was standing to welcome the first martyr home.

Jesus saw Stephen’s body being crushed to death and He watched him die. The logical question is why didn’t He save him? We don’t know for sure, but imagine Jesus saying, “Stephen, I know this is tough for you, but I’m planting a seed. See that young man over there, the one looking after the coats? His name is Saul of Tarsus and he’s the arch enemy of the church but I will soon change that.”

The arch enemy of the church became a Christian, and he changed his name to Paul. If you study the sermons of both Paul and Peter in the book of Acts, you’ll notice a vast difference in the way they preached, but, interestingly, the style of Paul is almost identical to that of Stephen. Perhaps God allowed the death of Stephen because he was sowing a seed in Saul of Tarsus that day; a seed that would eventually revolutionize the faith of thousands of Jewish people and bring the Gospel of Jesus Christ throughout the entire Mediterranean world. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 4:18, “We fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” Sometimes we want to know more than God will tell us, but what we need to know is this: God knows everything about us, and our security lies in the fact that God’s eye of love and ultimate protection and purpose is present in our hardships. That’s why we trust beyond what is visible to the unseen God who knows exactly what He’s doing!

PRAYER: Dear Lord, be my strength to persevere in whatever hardships may come my way. I ask that You use the seed You’ve planted in me to bring, by your Holy Spirit, the saving grace of Christ to others. Thank You, Lord.

TO REFLECT UPON: What is my perception of the hardships in my life? Am I willing to stand up under their weight, trusting God’s ultimate purpose is being accomplished in them?