Acts 6:15  All who were sitting in the Sanhedrin looked intently at Stephen, and they saw that his face was like the face of an angel        

                                                           

The trouble with needing grace is that we don't know how it will come. We look to the future and see some difficult, trying, or seemingly impossible circumstance that is coming our way and we pray for God's help, His grace, to see us through this time – but we cannot envisage how God's grace will come. We considered this yesterday in the light of the Lord speaking to king Cyrus about sending God's people back to the promised land after the Exile.

 

Corrie Ten Boom used to tell a story of when she was a child asking her father about this and he illustrated it by referring to a train ticket. She would only get it when she actually needed it. Stephen has been doing “great wonders and miraculous signs among the people,” (Acts 6:8) in the name of Jesus, and this made some of the Jews feel threatened over their religion. They set up false accusations about him and he is taken before the Jewish ruling Council. He needs God's grace.

 

As he stands there, suddenly his face glows like an angel. Something of the presence of the Lord came upon him to enable him to speak to them as we see in the following chapter. God's grace is there for him. Now, here's the tricky bit. So often we find the circumstances are trying and we yearn for God's grace but can't envisage how it will come - and the tricky thing is that it only actually comes when we need it - which may be in a day or so. Trust for it and be patient.

 

Whatever the future holds for you, as you seek to follow your Lord, He will provide His grace for you. You may not know beforehand in what form it will come, but come it will! Believe it and speak it! Trust Him that it WILL come and praise and thank Him in advance of it coming that He WILL provide for you - and then rest in His love and watch and wait and when the circumstances really press in, suddenly it will be there! Hallelujah!