Saturday, January 4, 2025
Scripture Readings
- Primary Reading: Acts 6-7
Key Verse
Acts 7:23 — “And when he was full forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren the children of Israel.”
Devotional Thought
The early church was growing rapidly, and with growth came growing pains. Acts 6 opens with a murmur—not against the apostles’ doctrine, but over the daily distribution of food. Greek-speaking widows were being overlooked while Hebrew widows received their portion. It is a strikingly ordinary problem: logistics, resources, fairness. Yet the apostles did not dismiss it as beneath their calling. They appointed seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, to serve tables, while they gave themselves to prayer and the ministry of the word. Among those seven was Stephen, a man full of faith and power, who did great wonders among the people.
Stephen’s story turns quickly. He is seized, falsely accused, and brought before the council. His face, we are told, shone like an angel’s. Then he preaches—a sweeping survey of Israel’s history from Abraham to Moses, from the patriarchs’ envy of Joseph to the people’s idolatry in the wilderness. His point cuts deep: the same stiffnecked resistance that persecuted the prophets now murdered the Just One. The crowd gnashed their teeth, stopped their ears, and stoned him. Stephen, full of the Holy Ghost, looked into heaven and saw Jesus standing at the right hand of God. He prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit,” and then, kneeling, “Lord, lay not this sin to their charge.” A young man named Saul stood by, holding the witnesses’ clothes.
Here in early January, as the year stretches out before us, Stephen’s death feels far from the manger’s warmth. Yet the season of Epiphany is precisely about light shining in darkness—God’s glory revealed in unexpected places. Stephen saw heaven opened not in a temple but under a hail of stones. The church’s first martyr was also one of its first servants of tables. Faithfulness in small things and courage in great things are not separate callings; they flow from the same Spirit.
We too live in a time when ordinary needs—widows’ meals, honest administration—sit alongside questions of ultimate allegiance. Stephen reminds us that a life full of the Holy Ghost may end in suffering, but it ends with a vision of Jesus standing to receive us. And that same Saul who watched the coats would one day be transformed by the very grace Stephen prayed for. No act of faithfulness, no prayer of forgiveness, is ever wasted.
Reflection
- Where in your own life is God calling you to serve faithfully in something small and unglamorous, trusting that He sees and will use it?
- Stephen forgave his killers even as they struck him. Is there someone you need to release to God in prayer today, asking Him to lay not their sin to their charge?
Prayer
Lord Jesus, we thank You that You stand at the right hand of the Father, interceding for Your people. Give us the spirit of Stephen—full of faith, full of the Holy Ghost, full of wisdom—to serve faithfully in the small duties of this day and to face whatever comes with a face turned toward heaven. Teach us to forgive as he forgave, and to entrust our spirits into Your hands. Let our lives, like his, bear witness to Your glory, whether in quiet service or in trial. Amen.