“Back to Sender”

I’m often appalled by this line of prayer from some of our prayer meetings and gatherings. Why are we so revengeful? Why are we so unbiblical in our reasoning? Definitely, that idea is not a New Testament one. Only in the Old Testament were they instructed to return eye for eye. In the NT, Jesus asked us to turn the other cheek, not to return back to sender. 

 

The great Indian Statesman, Mahatma Gandhi, said: An eye for an eye makes the whole world go blind. And that is coming from a Hindu.  Jesus was dying on the Cross, and yet prayed: Father forgive them, for they know not what they do. Stephen, while being stoned to death, still managed to say a word of prayer for his killers: Do not lay this sin to their charge.

Many of us have shut the door of salvation to many potential heaven bound sinners through our revengeful prayer. Thank God Saul of Tarsus didn’t live in our days. We would have killed him a thousand times. How do you know if that person sending the arrow is not a candidate of the kingdom? God has promised that no weapon formed against us shall prosper.  I would rather pray that evil arrow should catch fire and be destroyed than praying for it to return back to the sender. Even David, operating under the Old Covenant is godlier than some of us. Twice he had opportunities to strike dead his greatest persecutor, and twice he refrained from doing so. He was more justified under the Old Covenant to kill him, yet he allowed divine prerogative to have its way. No wonder God called him a man after his heart.

 

The good news is that it’s not all our prayers that God answers. Many of our prayers are only “feel good” prayers. They don’t go beyond our mouth; because they are so rooted in unbelief and so contrary to the scriptures.

Friends, we are New Testament believers! Let’s adjust our mentality to comply with the new order. New wine in old wineskin will not work. That is why it appears Christianity is not working. We are presenting the wrong teachings to the people. And many get frustrated when they don’t get the kind of result they are expecting which God never promised in the first instance. God never said he would kill all your enemies. Even in the OT He only said they shall be as nothing. In other words, they will be so helpless over you because He would render them ineffective. So why bothering yourself over nothing? Like they say: Much ado over nothing!

God has said: Vengeance is mine, I will repay. Why not allow God to be God over your situation? Why taking laws into your own hands? Yes, I know the scripture in the NT says: it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you (2 Thess 1:6). So God knows what to do; and He will do it, when the right times come.