ACTS 8:1-3; 9:1-2
You might have called Saul a mad man, a killer, an evil menace, a villain. If you had been living in those early days of the Church with the pressure of Saul’s persecution coming against you, how would you pray?
- Most of us would pray, “Stop this, Lord!” We would pray for deliverance. We would want our peace and happiness back from those heady early days in Jerusalem. Back to the comfort and complacency of Acts 2 where there was no suffering, no opposition…and no mission.
- A mere handful would, “Help, Lord!” Help us to have courage and faithfulness in the face of this persecution. Through this suffering, give us pure, undivided hearts that are fervent, unafraid, steadfast, and loving our enemies. Through these trials of many kinds, make us mature and complete, lacking nothing (James 1:2-3).
- A vanishing few would pray for the villain to be converted. “Lord, turn his heart!” Make the chief opponent of your Gospel into its chief spokesman. As we will see, this wasn’t even in the wildest dreams of the Christians then either. But that is the very thing Jesus was about to do.
Probably, all these are valid prayers. But how eager are we to pray each one? How do we pray about hard times, especially persecution? What is it that we really want?