Lord, Do Not Hold This Against Them: a free devotion

Acts 7:59–60

And as they were stoning Stephen, he called out, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." And falling to his knees he cried out with a loud voice, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them." And when he had said this, he fell asleep.

Devotion

The stones were falling and Stephen's body was breaking, and his prayer was not for himself — it was for the men who were killing him. That kind of love does not come from willpower. It comes from being so full of the Spirit that even in dying, mercy is the overflow. Saul of Tarsus stood holding the coats and walked away haunted — and later converted, and wrote half the New Testament. You will rarely see the long-term fruit of forgiving someone who has hurt you. But it is always planting something. Pray the prayer anyway. Let go of the debt. Fall asleep trusting the one who receives.

Go deeper

"Lord Jesus, receive my spirit"

The Final Offering · dechomai · G1209 · GREEK
To receive, to welcome, to accept — used when someone actively receives what is given to them; the word carries warmth, not mere acknowledgment

Stephen's last words are not a desperate cry but a conscious act of trust. He is giving his spirit to someone he is confident will receive it — warmly, personally, the way a father catches a falling child. Stephen had spent his life filled with the Spirit; he ended it by giving the spirit back. Death for Stephen was not a loss of control but a final act of surrender to the same Jesus who had been with him all along.

📖 Luke 23:46 · The Words Stephen Was Echoing

On the cross, in his final moments, Jesus called out: "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!" He was quoting Psalm 31:5 — a prayer of trust in the midst of danger.

Stephen, dying under a hail of stones, prays the same prayer — but addresses it to Jesus. He replaces "Father" with "Lord Jesus." It is a direct act of worship: Stephen is doing what Jesus did, and placing Jesus where Jesus placed the Father.

The early church was already worshipping Jesus as God. Stephen's dying prayer is one of the earliest pieces of evidence. In the moment when words are fewest and most honest, Stephen gives his spirit to Jesus — the one he had been serving and proclaiming throughout his ministry.

That prayer was not improvised. It was the overflow of a life already pointed in one direction.

"do not hold this sin against them"

The Debt Not Charged · histēmi · G2476 · GREEK
To stand, to set, to charge or credit — in legal accounting language: to put a debt to someone's account. Stephen prays that this murder not be charged to the account of his killers

This is the most stunning prayer in the book of Acts. Stephen is being killed — rocks are hitting his body — and he prays for the people throwing them. He is not asking God to protect him. He is asking God to forgive them. This kind of prayer is not the product of a decision made in the moment. It is the overflow of a love that had been filling him for years. Saul of Tarsus was standing there, watching. He never forgot it.

📖 Luke 23:34 · Father, Forgive Them

While they were nailing Jesus to the cross, he prayed: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."

Stephen, watching the same hands that were driving in the nails — metaphorically, watching men who were doing the same thing — prayed the same prayer. Not with Jesus's exact words, but with the same direction, the same scope, the same refusal to let death become an occasion for condemnation.

Both prayers are unreasonable. Both are human impossibilities. Neither Jesus nor Stephen could have prayed them from natural willpower. They prayed them because they were carrying something beyond natural capacity.

Saul stood and watched. He heard the prayer. And years later, when Jesus appeared to him on the Damascus road, he heard a voice he recognized — the same grace Stephen had poured out on his killers.

"he fell asleep"

The Gentler Word · koimaomai · G2837 · GREEK
To sleep, to fall asleep — used in the New Testament as a euphemism for the death of a believer, implying rest, peace, and the expectation of waking

Luke could have said Stephen died. He says he fell asleep. That is a theological statement, not just a poetic one. The New Testament consistently uses sleep as the metaphor for death because it carries the assumption of waking. Stephen was not extinguished. He rested. The stoning that ended his breathing did not end him. He fell asleep in a storm of rocks and woke up in the presence of the risen Jesus he had already seen standing at the right hand of God.

📖 John 11:11–14 · Our Friend Lazarus Has Fallen Asleep

When Jesus heard that Lazarus was ill, he waited two days before going. Then he said to his disciples: "Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go to awaken him." The disciples thought he meant natural sleep. Jesus meant death.

"Lazarus has died," Jesus clarified. But notice what he had called it first: sleep.

Then he went and raised him. Death had the last word for four days — and then it didn't. The sleeping friend woke up.

Stephen fell asleep under a hail of stones. He, too, is waiting to be awakened. The one who called Lazarus out of the tomb has already promised that what is sown in weakness will be raised in power. The sleep is real. The waking is more real.

Declarations

✦ I forgive as I have been forgiven — because my debt was cancelled, I release what others owe me. (Colossians 3:13)
✦ I commit my spirit into the hands of the one who receives me — living and dying, I am the Lord's. (Psalm 31:5)
✦ Death holds no final power over me. I will fall asleep in Christ and wake in the resurrection. (1 Corinthians 15:52)
✦ Jesus stands at the right hand of God and intercedes for me — I am not alone in any trial. (Romans 8:34)

Prayer

Father, I want to have a heart big enough to forgive the way Stephen forgave — not through gritted teeth but from an overflow of love. I cannot do that on my own. Fill me with the Spirit who made Stephen's prayer possible. Where I am holding debts against people who have hurt me, give me the grace to release them. You did not hold my sin against me. Help me extend what I have received. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Think about it

Is there someone whose debt you are still holding — whose sin you have been charging to their account rather than releasing? What would Stephen's prayer look like in your situation?

I will pray for the person who has most hurt me, and trust that the prayer accomplishes what I cannot see.

Open my personal devotional →

Want daily reminders on your phone? Get the Witness Health app.