Bible Passage: Acts 7:1-53

Stephen was wrongly accused of blaspheming God because the Jews were jealous at him for speaking God’s word with much power, wisdom and eloquence.

When he was questioned by the high priest, he began to deliver a sermon that would really cut to the heart of the unbelieving and hard-hearted Jews. Through the wisdom and power of the Holy Spirit, he showed them that the holy land and the temple, which they revered so much, were empty shells without God’s presence. A place in itself cannot be holy, unless God makes it holy with His presence. He also pointed to the irony that their fathers had initially rejected Moses as their deliverer, while they themselves now revered him so much. 

In a nutshell, Stephen tried to open the Israelites’ eyes to the shallowness of their faith. How about us? What’s the state of our faith? Is it deep or rather superficial?

Sometimes our faith becomes superficial over time because of our complacency. Life is generally smooth and faith becomes a routine. Subsequently, we don’t seem to experience God so often anymore. For this reason, James encourages us to “draw near to God and he will draw near to you” (Jas 4:8). If we make an effort to regularly and whole-heartedly draw near to God through meditating on His words, communicating with Him in prayer and practicing His words, we will naturally experience God’s presence and love in our daily lives and deepen our relationship with Him.

Sometimes our faith may also turn shallow because we are unwittingly focusing on the wrong thing – the Israelites focused on the holy land and the temple instead of God Himself. They revered the man Moses more than God Himself. How about us? Do we focus more on the fellowship with brethren or fellowship with God? Do we focus more on the sermonizer or on God’s word? Do we rely more on our own wisdom to complete church work or do we rely on God? Just like the Israelites, we may be so convinced of our own opinion and zeal that we totally miss the most important aspect of our faith: God Himself.
For this reason, we need to take a step back and readjust our focus from time to time, i.e. stop and reflect on our words, deeds and motives. This requires that we humble ourselves  and quiet our hearts… which brings us back to spiritual cultivation. Let us therefore try our best to find a quiet time every day to draw near to God…and He will draw near to us.