Hammering Water

But Saul began ravaging the church, entering house after house, and dragging off men and women, he would put them in prison.  Therefore, those who had been scattered went about preaching the word. (Acts 8:3-4 NASB)
 

Stephen's death marked the turn of the city of Jerusalem against the believers there.  The speech of Stephen was immensely powerful  in that it set the religious power-elite actively against the congregation they had barely tolerated until this time.  Their threats became reality, and they "brought the hammer down."  It didn't work exactly like they wanted though.

Saul drags off men and women from their homes, families are devastated (or should be), and the prisons are filling with these followers of Jesus.  Understandably, many in the Jerusalem congregation scatter to the outlying areas.  It's just as they go, they preach the good news.  The message Saul tried to stamp out is now spread all through the region around Jerusalem, into Samaria and is pressing out beyond.  Having brought the hammer down, the religious elite found they had hammered water.  They only made a bigger mess.

I don't know if they expected this reaction, but if they did expect something like this they controlled it poorly.  I don't think they really understood what they were fighting.  Like the old teacher from chapter 5 warned them, they found themselves fighting against God, and it wasn't going well.

Have I fought against my Master thinking I'm doing the "right thing" but completely missing His goals, purposes, and actions?  Maybe, and more probably as He works in my own life.  I don't know that I would characterize my mistakes as "bringing the hammer down", but that's not the only wrong response.  It is probably more accurate to say that I have actively tried to pursue the wrong thing thinking I was doing my Master's will.

There are things that I think should be a top priority with my Master, and, given the opportunity, I pursue those.  My evaluation of those sorts of things typically follows things I like to attack or work on, toward, or whatever.  They are my preferences because they come naturally or easy to me.  I am learning slowly that such criteria are more often wrong than right.

So, I may not be Saul persecuting those following Jesus, but I can be my own silly self pursuing my own agenda.  I'm still wrong, just perhaps not as dramatically.  The solution is submission.

By submitting to my Master daily, hourly, minutely, I can be much better attuned to what He is leading me into.  I can be more like Stephen, heedless of the coming torturous death, instead of Saul, heedless of the God at work around him.  And so, once again, I start with prayer (and a yard sale - I don't recommend the yard sale).