Holy Spirit of God, help me hear your wisdom and be corrected…

Acts 6:8-15

 
Stephen was a good man who was ‘full of grace and power; and did great wonders and signs among the people’. Some time after the crucifixion  Stephen was moved by the Holy Spirit of God to preach the truth of Jesus’ death and resurrection to Jewish authorities to bring them to repentance and the saving Grace of God.  A number of movers and shakers of the people in those days, who the writer says ‘could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which [Stephen] spoke’, had such a great devotion to their own power and self-righteousness that they actually put their hands over their ears to stop the word of God spoken by Stephen from entering their souls – and then proceeded to stone yet another good man to death.  When the Lord corrects me through the words and actions of others, will I, like the enemies of Stephen close my ears to their wisdom and the Holy Spirit of God, and get rid of those people, stone-walling them out of my life? Or will I listen attentively to the Truth that God is confronting me with, be corrected, and find redemption and new life in Christ Jesus?  Holy Spirit of God, help me hear your wisdom and be corrected. 
 
Put false ways far from me, and graciously teach me your law.   (Psalm 119)
 
You cannot put straight in others what is warped in yourself.
St. Athanasius  
 
Soli ad gloriam
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