Acts 7:59-60 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.
My Thoughts
Has there every been somebody that you just didn't think you could forgive? They say something about you...they wrong you in some way that is really hurtful. Sometimes we just have trouble forgiving. But Jesus tells us to forgive, to pray for our enemies. Stephen was telling the truth, telling all that God had done. The people didn't want to hear it and were stoning him. All Stephen had done was spoken a truth that the people didn't want to hear the truth. These people were killing Stephen in a brutal way... Yet Stephen did as Jesus asked... he forgave these people and ask God to forgive them. They were taking Stephen's life... not hurting his feeling, not attacking his character, the weren't forgetting a lunch date or trying for the same job...... they were taking his life and Stephen was able to forgive them. Forgiveness is huge, God commands that we forgive others.... we want others to forgive us. We want God to forgive us. We need to expect from ourselves what we expect from others. If we don't practice forgiveness in the small things would we be able to do what Stephen did and give forgiveness in the mist of death? No matter what somebody has done to us we need to be forgiving. We would want others to do the same for us.
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