The jaw dropping prayer

I read this little story at the start of an article the other day:

In South Carolina, a pastor entered the worship service one Sunday morning and his jaw dropped. There sat a family that had belonged to every church in town, and had torn each one up. The only church they’d not joined was this one. And now they were here. Sure enough, during the invitation they came forward and, because this was the way they did things in that church and no plans had ever been made for dealing with troublemakers, the pastor presented them to the congregation. The people dutifully voted to accept them into the membership. Then, the pastor called on an elderly deacon for the benediction.  The courageous old deacon prayed, “Lord, we have a wonderful church. We love our church. Now, Lord, this family standing before us today has torn up every church they’ve ever belonged to, and now they’ve come here. Lord, don’t let them hurt this church. Even if you have to strike them down. We can’t kill them but you can!” At last report, the family was still behaving themselves.

https://churchleaders.com/pastors/pastor-articles/319880-handle-troublemakers-church-joe-mckeever.html?fbclid=IwAR2F1JKAJhETg6PYH3s7avKOepbxfRturf4zo2s5L37geIjNUmlvHgHfjlc

Now, I suspect that a few of us found our own jaws dropping when we got to the punch line of the old deacon’s prayer.  I suspect that many of us sympathise with him.  I suspect also that we probably wouldn’t pray like that, nor would we encourage it.

However, there are two crucial things to take away here.  First, the deacon was right. It is for God to protect and care for his church. He alone is able.  Secondly, whilst we won’t be praying for literal death, we would recognise that what people most need, even and especially the most challenging people is a confrontation with God, with the Holy Spirit.  Whilst we primarily talk in terms of the Holy Spirit giving life, we also need to recognise that Scripture say that there is a place for putting to death. This is not about flesh and blood. Rather, it’s about the need to see sin and sinful desire put t death.

At this point we realise that this isn’t just something we need to be praying for those who we see as challenging. It’s exactly what we need too.