When you pray for the persecuted Church around the world, what do you pray for? Do you ask God to simply remove persecuted Christians from their hostile contexts? Or do you pray for their faithful witness in the midst of persecution?
Yesterday was the annual International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church (IDOP) – a time for concentrated prayer for the encouragement and perseverance of believers who are attacked because of their faith. Although IDOP 2020 is over, Frontiers USA president Bob Blincoe has some thoughts on how we can continue to meaningfully support the persecuted Church.
Frontiers USA supports Gospel outreach in the Muslim world. Blincoe says rather than pull the Church out of persecution contexts like the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), believers need to recognize that persecution is a hopeful sign that the Gospel is present in hostile regions.
“There are places in the Muslim world where the Church is not persecuted because there is no Church,” Blincoe says. “There are no churches gathered in many Muslim countries.
“Let’s keep pressing on, sending missionaries, and not be simply shocked and paralyzed because there is a persecuted Church. [Let’s] not simply feel sorry for the persecuted Church. Although our sorrow and grief are real, let us push on until the witness of the Gospel has gone to the Afghanistans of the world [and] the Pakistans of the world.”
When facing persecution, Jesus commands His followers in Matthew 5:44 to “pray for those who persecute you.”
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SOURCE: Mission Network News, Lyndsey Koh
CALL TO ACTION
- Pray for persecuted Christians in the Muslim world to be renewed in their faith.
- Ask God to use the example of persecuted believers to change the hearts of their persecutors.
- Get Frontiers USA’s prayer guides to better inform your prayers!
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