God Never Wastes a Tragedy
"As they stoned him, Stephen prayed, . . .'Lord, don’t charge them with this sin!' And with that, he died.
Saul (who later became the Apostle Paul who wrote most of the New Testament) agreed completely with the killing of Stephen.
A great wave of persecution began that day. . . .Saul was going everywhere to destroy the church. He went from house to house, dragging out both men and women to throw them into prison. 4 But the believers who were scattered preached the Good News about Jesus wherever they went." Acts 7:57-8:1-4
Pastor's Blog
Stephen decides to follow Christ and right away dies a tragic death. What a waste! Or was it?
If the Bible is correct in its view that this life is only the duration of a breath and that life in the resurrection in the new creation is big and long beyond imagination, then a short life lived for and used by God for his purpose is not bad.
Life is not about comfort or pain or quality or longevity. It is about becoming God’s servant and living His purpose in whatever years and circumstances you are given. The real life for which this one is the preparation begins after this one. This life is the cover page, the next one is begins the book.
Stephen did what Jesus did. He offered forgiveness to the unforgivable. Saul heard that and was motivated even more to kill people like Stephen. Yet Stephen’s witness was part of the intervention of God which broke Saul and changed him into the Paul who became one of those people he wanted to rid the world of.
Stephen’s life was not a waste. A life of prosperity, character, public acclaim and success, even characterized by a generous spirit, although still used by God (God uses all things for good), can still be a waste in terms of the individual person’s heart. If all that was about him, then, well yes, what a waste.
Regarding "God uses all things for good", Rom 8:28 goes on to say "to those who love God and are called according to His purpose". So there are two conditions that must apply to a person before we can say "God uses all things for good" in their situation.
ReplyDelete#1 is loving God and Jesus makes it plain that this means living in obediemnce to His commands. Earlier, Paul said in Rom 8:7 that if we are living a worldly lifestyle and do not have our mindset on the Spirit, then we are "hostile toward God" and so we cannot claim to love Him. So the first condition for "all for good" is to live in obedience with a mindset on following the Holy Spirit.
#2 is being called or living-out-life according to God's purpose - His desire that we be conformed to Jesus' likeness (Rom 8:29). So we must also be growing in Christ-likeness, and this takes discipline, before the "all for good" can apply.
In other words, this "all for good" promise from God applies to people who are in a love-obedience-Spirit led-servant relationship with God like Stephen was.
While I like what the above comment states, I think we should have some caution of not getting to legalistic about being used by God. I think God can use us for His good no matter what. Perhaps instead of conditions, maybe we could see these as characteristics (that is, Christlikeness). Do these characteristics come before God uses us, as God uses us, or after God uses us?
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