Being Forgiving People
Acts
7:54–8:1
Key
Verse: As
they stoned him, Stephen prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”
He fell to his knees, shouting, “Lord, don’t charge them with
this sin!” And with that, he died (Acts 7:59-60 NLT).
To forgive and to be forgiven. This is one of the many things that it means to be Christian. On the night of his resurrection Jesus appeared among the disciples and one of the things he did was grant them the power to forgive. Earlier in his ministry Jesus told us that the measure we use on others will be used on us. Stephen understood the power of forgiveness. He knew the forgiveness of Christ and he forgives those who are in the process of killing him and in doing so bears witness to the forgiveness that can be found in God. Saul, who would later become a great missionary of the Church, was there and witnesses these events. Those around us, such as Saul here in this passage, see and know the forgiveness of God in and through us first. The people in our lives will know the love and forgiveness of God when they first experience love and forgiveness in us. We forgive because we are forgiven by God. We show people who God is and the way God loves and forgives them, when we forgive. Let us be people of forgiveness in all things.
Prayer:
Oh,
Lord God, Forgiving is hard. No one is trying to kill me, but
sometimes, I find it easy to hold onto the wrongs others have
committed against me. Give me the spirit of Stephen and not only be
willing to forgives those who wrong me, but let me plead with you to
forgive them as well. Help me to not merely offer my own forgiveness,
but to desire they be forgiven in deeper ways than I could offer or
hope to give. Let me seek the good of those who wrong me, even as
they wrong me. Amen
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