Living Full of Faith

DEVOTION

THE BOOK OF ACTS

LIVING FULL OF FAITH

Acts 7:9-10

9 "Because the patriarchs were jealous of Joseph, they sold him as a slave into Egypt. But God was with him 10 and rescued him from all his troubles. He gave Joseph wisdom and enabled him to gain the goodwill of Pharaoh king of Egypt; so he made him ruler over Egypt and all his palace.

NIV

Stephen is still giving the Sanhedrin a history lesson but with a purpose. Perhaps the reason he is including Joseph and his jealous brothers is because it would seem the Sanhedrin were jealous of Stephen. There is sort of a comparison we could see here, although Joseph’s brothers just sold him into slavery where the Sanhedrin are going to end up stoning Stephen to death.  We can also see that God gave Joseph wisdom and God also gave Stephen wisdom. Although Joseph gain the goodwill of an earthly king, Stephen had gained the goodwill of our heavenly King. There is more, but we need to focus and learn a life lesson from this portion of Stephen’s response. The reason the brothers of Joseph were Jealous of him was because he had visions from God and they did not, and he gained more favor from their father then they had. Certainly the Sanhedrin felt jealous of Stephen because he was full of faith and the Holy Spirit and he was full of the grace and power of God and it showed in his acts of doing great miracles and signs. All the Sanhedrin had was their religion, but God was showing his favor on Stephen. Is it possible the reason people are not jealous of us is because we are no different than there are? Is it possible we live with the same kind of religion they have instead of living full of faith and of the Holy Spirit being influenced by the Divine and having the power to do great signs and wonders? Joseph trusted God, and when he heard from him, he was not shy about telling his family about his visions. They did not have visions from God, so the jealously began. Stephen was not shy about telling people about his faith, his relationship with Jesus, and those Sanhedrin must have been missing what Stephen had, so jealously began. Perhaps if we were living more like those men, full of faith and the Holy Spirit, other believers might be jealous of us. Although it is not good to cause a brother to stumble, and jealously is a form of stumbling, we should still desire that kind of relationship with our Lord, and perhaps even encourage our brothers and sisters in Christ to that same kind of experience. What a church that would be, if we all were people full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, having our hearts influenced by God and having the power to perform great signs and wonders. If this were the church, it would certainly be one where many would be added to our number daily. But that kind of church has to start somewhere, with someone, so let it start with us. Jealously or not, we must live like those men of faith lived. We must be people living full of faith.