You never know how GOD will use your suffering. No pain, no gain a lesson we need to learn from Stephen.
As a young believer, who was being encouraged to go out and share my faith, I was troubled. I knew that GOD had saved me and given me eternal life in HIS SON JESUS, but I was afraid. I didn’t know enough. I thought I would be laughed at, mocked, or even worse, someone would ask me a question I could not answer. How would I handle the rejection, the scorn, or even my own inability to defend the faith? Here I was, forty years of age, and I was afraid. I would even become nervous just putting a tract on a car window. Where was all my strength, determination, discipline, and love? Then there came the first time I was going to open air preach. Oh man, I had never felt so insecure. My mind raced with all the doubts and fears the evil one could sow in my mind and heart. Something was happening. You may suppose something was happening with me and my walk with the LORD – true, it was. But, I think, actually, the real change was what was happening inside the others around me.
9 But some men from what was called the Synagogue of the Freedmen, including both Cyrenians and Alexandrians, and some from Cilicia and Asia, rose up and argued with Stephen.
10 But they were unable to cope with the wisdom and the Spirit with which he was speaking. (Acts 6:9–10)
However, it is at this juncture of the narrative where we do not want to follow down the path of Stephen. There comes a fork in the road where, on the one path, you will have common ground or perhaps, mutual respect for one another. The other path, there is sure to be adversity and pain. The pain does not always mean physical. There are two paths to choose from and you will make a choice no matter what you do. Here comes the rub – the words of the LORD JESUS come magnified in our minds:
24 “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.”
(John 12:24)
We all know what the call of the LORD is. We all know the sacrifice HE made. We all know the love HE has for HIS FATHER and for us that put HIM on that cross. Yet, when it comes time for us to bear HIS shame, time and time again, we fall short. I know this feeling and I pray never feel it again. But, for Stephen and others, it was one word that compelled them to move down the road less traveled: love.
10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another
(1 John 4:10–11)
You see, once you have tasted the kindness of the LORD and allow your eyes to be focused on HIM and HIM alone, you will declare the praise of JESUS and be HIS witness, regardless of the circumstances or results. It is, in effect, the result of John 12:24 followed up in the next two verses:
25 “He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal.
26 “If anyone serves Me, he must follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also; if anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him.”
(John 12:25–26)
Friends you never know how GOD is using your suffering, that precious gift of HIS to you, to build HIS church. All to often, we are short sighted and fail to see through the lens of GOD’S Word. The very foremost object of your affection is the LORD and to be pleasing to HIM. Your discomfort, your bearing the shame of CHRIST is also being used to strengthen others. It is a seed which goes deep down and if/when the LORD is pleased, it is watered and grows! It grows in the hearts of unbelievers. But, it also grows in the hearts of believers, causing them to gain strength and encouragement to press on. You never know how GOD is going to use your suffering! We are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses! Perhaps, the rejoicing in heaven among those who have gone before, resonates and rings out in worship and praise in the LORD JESUS, as they see HIS grace working in and through you! For all you know, the sharing of your faith and bearing the shame of CHRIST (worth more than all riches) may be used for the next Paul to be influenced and go forth.
58 When they had driven him out of the city, they began stoning him; and the witnesses laid aside their robes at the feet of a young man named Saul.
The stoning of Stephen
(Acts 7:58)
19 “And I said, ‘Lord, they themselves understand that in one synagogue after another I used to imprison and beat those who believed in You.
20 ‘And when the blood of Your witness Stephen was being shed, I also was standing by approving, and watching out for the coats of those who were slaying him.’
(Acts 22:19–20)
You never know how GOD will use your suffering to build HIS church; how HE will exalt HIS SON JESUS in and through you. But one thing is absolutely for certain, your suffering is not in vain or overlooked. Indeed, it is precious in the FATHER’S sight – it shows you love HIS SON more than you love your life. The FATHER will, in due time, honor you and honor those who have lost their life for the sake of HIS SON JESUS.
I made mention earlier, the area where I think GOD was using my growth was not so much with myself, but others. It has been nearly fourteen years since the LORD truly saved me. I have stayed in touch with several of my brothers from the beginning of my walking with the LORD. Several have drifted off and gone down a different road. Some have continued in the faith, but have settled into a routine life. But, ever so often, the LORD grants for me to have a glimpse of how HE has been using me in other’s lives. Even now, as I feel my body hurting and the slow degeneration, physically and mentally, which comes from age, I get a glimpse of watching the LORD work in and through me. There are some moments, when, like a ray of sunshine breaking through the trees or gray clouds, I see a small portion of the LORD’S grace, in my suffering, toward others. I don’t know how GOD will use my suffering to build HIS church or exalt HIS SON JESUS CHRIST. Perhaps, it is best I don’t know. What I do know is the LORD has placed in my heart a desire to live godly and to be pleasing to HIM – to love HIM. For me, that gift is beyond what I could have ever hoped for, given my life previous to my new birth. It is my hope to be a branch abiding in CHRIST and that HE will, in and through me, produce much good fruit to maturity. I know growth will require pruning and where there is pruning, there is pain. I think I can finish this up by the following Scripture and trusting in HIM to use it to build HIS church – just as Stephen did. Grace and peace friends. Glory to GOD! Worthy is the LAMB! May the LORD JESUS CHRIST ever be honored and exalted!
12 Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people through His own blood, suffered outside the gate.
13 So, let us go out to Him outside the camp, bearing His reproach.
14 For here we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the city which is to come.
(Hebrews 13:12–14)