Elevate: Raising the Bar for Conversations About Political TensionsSample

You may feel like you have enemies, and you might even be right. But you’ve likely never had a mob of angry people hurling stones at you to try and murder you like Stephen experienced in Scripture. Stephen was faithful to what God called him to do, so why did this happen to him? Being faithful meant speaking the truth about Jesus to a crowd of politicians and legalistic religious leaders. Rather than receive him, that same crowd lied about him and wrongly accused him of crimes that led to his public execution. Talk about injustice! But with his last words, Stephen teaches us how to respond to those who seem against us: with grace. The crowd didn’t understand the bigger picture, but Stephen did. Grace always wins in the end.

This week, pray for the people making decisions about policies, pray for those making decisions about the future of our nation, and pray for your heart to be gracious no matter what decisions are made.