Prayer for the Persecuted Church

Imagine you're on your feet, dancing and singing praises to the Lord during the Sunday morning church worship service.  Before anyone realizes what is happening, your pew neighbor crumbles to the floor. As you reach over to help him, you hear yelling and sounds of gun shots from the back of the church building.  Horrified, you hit the cement floor and take cover under the wooden bench.  Screaming drowns out singing, crying and desperate calls for help are mixed in the cacophony that follows.  The gun fire silences the cries from your friends in church.  Loud battle cries accompany the intruders and can still be heard as they exit the door, pumping their guns into the air, leaving dozens of church goers dead or wounded in their wake.

Such a situation took place last month in Nigeria.  It was the most recent of many such attacks.  Not only there; regularly in other places like Afghanistan and Viet Nam Christians suffer anything from beheadings, languishings in jail, homes ransacked and burned.  Christians are brutally persecuted and killed, and the local government is either unwilling or unable to protect its Christian citizens.

Increasingly, this is the case in more and more places around the world.  Christians are risking their lives by proclaiming their faith.  And they do it, anyway, personalizing 1 John 4:4 - "Greater is He who is in me, than he who is in the world".  Fully aware of the risk and cost, they value their life in Christ higher than the hardship they almost certainly will be confronted with.

Since 1996 one Sunday in November has marked The International Day of Prayer (IDOP).  This year, it’s Sunday, 11 November.  So far, over 100,000 churches in the US, plus in 130 countries, including almost every denomination, has participated in remembering those who are persecuted for their faith in Jesus Christ.

An entry on www.persecutedchurch.org explains: “The International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church (IDOP) is a global day of intercession for persecuted Christians worldwide. Its primary focus is the work of intercessory prayer and citizen action on behalf of persecuted communities of the Christian faith. We also encourage prayer for the souls of the oppressors, the nations that promote persecution, and those who ignore it.  We believe that prayer changes things. Exactly what happens is a mystery of faith. God invites us to present to Him our requests and to pray without ceasing. Persecuted Christians often plead for prayer to help them endure. The most we can do is the least we can do — pray.”

Join us in doing so this Sunday, and then add to your prayer list our persecuted brothers and sisters that they may have courage and stand strong in the faith.