Devotions

“But he [Stephen], being full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, and said, ‘Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God’” (Acts 7:55-56 NKJV)!

Stephen represented the essence of a true Christian. He was full of the Holy Ghost, and he mirrored God’s glory in a way that all who saw it were amazed and filled with wonder. His steady gaze was fixed on Christ, and he was wholly occupied with a glorified Savior. Stephen, a charismatic leader of the early church, was a man who boldly preached the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This was unpopular with some of the Jewish authorities, and they accused him of blasphemy. Arrested and hauled before the Council of the Sanhedrin, Stephen still refused to back down, and before long, the crowd became ugly and violent.

Look at the hopeless condition Stephen was in. He was surrounded by religious madness, superstition, prejudice and jealousy. The angry mob pressed in on him, wild-eyed and bloodthirsty, and death by stoning loomed just ahead. What impossible circumstances!

Stephen knew where to look. His gaze turned upward, and he beheld his Lord in glory. Suddenly his rejection here on earth meant nothing to him. Now he was above it all, seeing him who was invisible. The stones and the angry cursing could not harm him because of the joy set before him.

One glimpse of Christ's glory lifts us above our circumstances and gives us a peace and serenity that nothing else can. “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord” (2 Corinthians 3:18).

Stephen caught the rays of the Holy Spirit and reflected them to a Christ-rejecting society. We, too, become what we behold.  We in the mirror reflect Christ, the object of our affection, and are transformed as we gaze upon him.

When the enemy comes in and troubling circumstances get us down, we need to both amaze and condemn the world around us with our sweet, restful repose in Christ. Since we see by our spiritual mind, this is accomplished by keeping our minds firmly fixed on him.

Let’s talk about the word “unrelenting.” It means undiminished in intensity or effort, unyielding, uncompromising, incapable of being changed or persuaded by arguments.

Unrelenting, constant, sustained, never-ending — what a marvelous description of God’s love! Nothing can hinder or diminish his loving pursuit of both sinners and saints. The Psalmist put it perfectly: “You have hedged me behind and before, and laid your hand upon me…Where can I go from your Spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence? If I ascend into heaven, you are there; if I make my bed in hell, behold, you are there” (Psalm 139:5, 7-8 NKJV).

David is speaking of life’s highs and lows. “Sometimes I feel so blessed and filled with joy. At other times, I feel condemned and unworthy; but no matter how I feel or where I am, Lord, you are with me. You never accept my arguments about how unworthy I am. Even when I am disobedient, you never stop loving me. Your love for me is relentless!”

Consider the testimony of the apostle Paul. Here was a man bent on destroying God's church. Paul had a fierce hatred for Christians. He breathed out threats of slaughter against everyone who followed Jesus. He even sought the high priest's authorization to hunt down believers so he could charge into their homes and drag them off to prison.

God’s fervent love for Paul never wavered, even during those hate-filled years. In a letter to the Romans, Paul wrote, “But God demonstrates his own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). He was saying, “Even though I wasn't conscious of it, God was pursuing me. He kept coming until he caught up with me and literally knocked me off my high horse. That’s the unrelenting love of God.”

Throughout the rest of his life, Paul’s confidence in God’s faithfulness only grew. “For I am persuaded,” he wrote, “that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39).

John the Baptist's definition of his ministry was blunt and simple: “I am ‘the voice of one crying in the wilderness’” (John 1:23 NKJV).

Who was John the Baptist? The scriptures says that this most blessed of all prophets was the greatest “among them that are born of women” and a revered preacher of righteousness. Crowds flocked to hear John's scorching messages. Many were baptized and became his disciples. Even royalty came under his mighty influence. Some thought he was Christ; others considered him to be Elijah raised from the dead.

However, this fearless man of God refused to be exalted or promoted. He was emptied of self, and he continually withdrew from center stage. In his own eyes, he wasn’t even worthy to be called a man of God. He was simply a wilderness voice, modest, retiring and unconcerned about honor or usefulness. He didn't care about having a ministry or being “mightily used of God.” In fact, he considered himself unworthy to even touch Jesus’ shoes. His entire life was devoted to “the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world” (John 1:29).

What a powerful rebuke to us in this age of self-occupation, promotion of personalities, influence-grabbing, ego-tripping and seeking of honors. John could have had it all, yet he cried, “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30). The secret of John's happiness was that his joy was not in his ministry or work, not in his personal usefulness or widespread influence. His pure joy was to stand in the presence of the Lord, hear his voice and rejoice in it. His joy was in seeing others, his own disciples included, flocking to Jesus, the Lamb of God.

The greatest fulfillment a child of God can know is to lose self and all desire to be somebody, and simply rejoice in being a son or daughter who lives in the very presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. Being totally occupied with Christ is what satisfies the heart.

May we, like John, understand that our worth comes from Christ alone. May our souls find their sustenance and joy in him, the author and finisher of our faith.

In Philippians, the first chapter ends with a charge to believers. “Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, and not frightened in anything by your opponents. This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation, and that from God” (Philippians 1:27-28, ESV). This sounds great!

The very last two verses go on to sound even better, at least at first. “For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him…” Who wouldn’t want this? We’re being given a gift by God; he’s granting us salvation and belief in him. So what else do we get? This passage says next, “…but also suffer for his sake, engaged in the same conflict that you saw I had and now hear that I still have” (Philippians 1:29-30).

That causes us to pause, doesn’t it? Maybe we say things like “God, I thought you would grant victory. I thought you would grant success and growth. I thought you would grant me joy…” The thing is that God does grant all those things to us, but he also gifts us with suffering for his sake.

There are four things that God wants to see created through trials in the people whom he loves. Number one, he wants your heart to be encouraged. Number two is that you would be knit together with other believers in love. Three is that you'd reach all the riches of the full assurance, and four is the understanding of the knowledge of God's mystery, which is Christ.

Struggling is exhausting and painful. When we hear some smooth message about how we can have all of these blessings without the struggle, it’s very tempting to believe, right? Getting these gifts from God doesn't require intercessory prayer. It doesn't require fasting. It doesn't require you to study day and night or fall on your knees before God so often.

That’s a tempting message, but is it true? I don’t think it is, based on those verses in Philippians. God gifts us with suffering, and he gives us these blessings through our trials.

Young families in a suburb of North Carolina started a church; and after two years, it was just exploding. They had to move into a bigger building, but after a bit, an adult bookstore bought the building across from them. So now this church was sharing a parking lot with an adult bookstore. They tried to fight it. They sent letters to the mayor, stood before the city council, petitioned for the bookstore to be moved. Nothing worked.

The church called for 21 days of prayer and fasting. Isn't it funny that we tend to pray last? As they prayed, around day 14, a giant thunderstorm hit the community. Lightning struck the adult bookstore, and it burned to the ground.

The bookstore sued the church, saying, “We want you to pay for the lost wages and the building because your prayer meeting burned our business down.” The church protested, “It’s not our fault. It was a thunderstorm, and we’re not paying for anything.” My favorite part of this, though, was when the judge stood up and said, “I’ve never seen anything like this. We have an adult bookstore that believes in prayer and a church that doesn’t.”

Wouldn't it be amazing if God always answered prayer that fast? The thing is that he sometimes does, but sometimes he doesn’t. He doesn’t work on our schedule, so then we start to think that he doesn’t answer prayer.

Maybe you’re in a desperate position right now financially, or your marriage is struggling, or serious health issues are on the table. It would be amazing if you prayed, then your answer was waiting for you as soon as you turned around! How many of you know, though, that it doesn’t usually happen that way? Lightning doesn’t strike the buildings — or people — we pray about, and God doesn’t immediately heal or move. There’s a reason for this. When our prayers don’t get answered quickly, we have to trust God and God’s plans for us.

The Bible says, “Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working” (James 5:16, ESV). How many of us really believe this? How many of us are willing to wait to see God move?

_{After pastoring an inner-city congregation in Detroit for thirty years, Pastor Tim served at Brooklyn Tabernacle in NYC for five years and pastored in Lafayette, Louisiana, for five years. He became Senior Pastor of Times Square Church in May of 2020.}