Loading... Acts 7:11 - OUR FATHERS FOUND NO SUSTENANCE
Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009Acts 7:11 Now there came a dearth over all the land of Egypt and Chanaan, and great affliction: and our fathers found no sustenance.
Stephen is sharing with the religious leaders how the things he has spoken of are not blasphemy. Stephen is going through the history of the nation of Israel and showing how God directed and protected Jacob and his sons. In this passage, Stephen is reminding the religious leaders how a famine entered the land and how God directed Jacob and his family to Egypt.
If you were Jacob and you saw all your provisions dry up, would you blame God for not blessing you? We often get so caught up in tangible possessions that we fail to stop and look at what God desires to do through us. If Jacob had become mad at God for not blessing him and had stopped listening to God, he never would have heard God tell him to go to Egypt.
Long before Jacob ever knew that there was going to be a famine in the Promise Land, God sent Jacob to Egypt to prepare a way of escape for Jacob. God not only provided for Jacob and his family but HE also directed them in the way they should go by withholding a blessing of food from Jacob. God could have provided food for Jacob in the Promise Land but this was not God’s plan, it was time for Jacob and his family to leave the Promise Land.
There are many lessons that we can learn from the life of Jacob in this passage. First, just because we are fulfilling the promises of God, it does not mean that God does not have something better for us. Jacob was in the Promise Land but he still was not being blessed by God. We need to understand that God is greater than all of our plans. We need to understand that just because we think we understand God in one area, it does not mean that God has something much greater for us to understand.
Jacob did not allow the lack of provision to stop him from listening to God. Rather than become focused upon provisions and the things that God had blessed him with, Jacob focused upon God and allowed the difficult times to be a reminder that God was in control and that God would direct him where he needed to go.
When things get tough, it is not the time for us to throw a little pity party for ourselves. Instead, when things get tough, we need to turn our focus upon God and be patient with HIM because HE always knows what is best for our life. Do not retract like a turtle when trials come, instead, run straight towards God and jump into HIS loving arms just as a little kid who just heard thunder will jump into his parent’s bed.
We need to be patient with God. God understands what is best for our lives. It is very easy to look back at your life and see how God works everything together for good just as Stephen is doing with the religious leaders. Nonetheless, it is much harder to live by faith and trust that God knows what is best when you are in the midst of the storm. Nonetheless, if we want to increase in faith, this is what we need to do; when things get tough, we need to turn to God.
It is very easy to become impatient with God when things do not go the way we planned. However, our ways are not always HIS ways. When things do not go our way, we need to turn to God and we need to allow HIM to direct our paths. We need to wait for HIS perfect timing so that HE can be glorified in our life. Stop and allow God to direct your steps. Turn to HIM and learn to listen to HIS still small voice.