When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on him with their teeth. But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up stedfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God. — Act 7:54 & 55
As we go through life, it is very easy to be distracted by things around us. I recently talked about the challenge of being content. The distractions that we face in life are more than just a challenge to our ability to remain content. It is a challenge to our ability to remain focused.
The world throws things at us that we are constantly responding to. As we focus on living for God in the world, it can be upsetting and challenging to those who may not believe. We are to follow the example of Christ and Scripture teaches how the world responded to Him, rejecting Him and pushing for Him to be crucified.
The example of Stephen is a similar story. Stephen was living for Christ, focused on doing the work of God, and it upset those around him. They were not happy, even leading to those gnashing on him with their teeth! Could you imagine seeing people so upset in our day with someone living for God that they turned to such actions?
While those around us may not resort to gnashing with teeth, they quickly resort to other measures. They work to find ways to punish us, treat us differently, or openly ridicule us. It would have been easy for Stephen to just simply throw in the towel. He could have stopped living for God and decided to give in to the crowd. Instead, Stephen remained focused on God.
While those around him were gnashing, throwing stones, and looking for any way to destroy Stephen, he remained focused. Are we as focused on the work of God as Stephen? Are we able to withstand the distractions around us because we are so focused on God? Oh that God would help us to become so focused that nothing in the world could distract us.