Remember Them

The International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church organization estimates that every 5 minutes a Christian is martyred for his or her faith. Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary approximates that 160,000 Christians die for following Jesus every year.

Christians are a persecuted people in the world. The persecution, from all reports, is on the incline rather than the decline.

We have made suffering, pain, and persecution the exception in following Jesus. The norm in the western world has been that following Jesus should always be about our comfort, wealth, safety, and happiness. 

Yet this is nothing of what Jesus taught and the Bible presents. Rather, Jesus said in this world we would have trouble. Paul stated that we would enter the kingdom of God only through many great tribulations. Following Jesus doesn't give us a pass for suffering for His name or experiencing pain and difficulty in this world.

While we may know little of this in the western world, our brothers and sisters who follow Jesus in other parts of the world know it all too well. They often find their lives threatened by the mouth of the lion, the edge of the sword, the power of the fire, the nation opposed to God, and the army that seeks their destruction.

The writer to the Hebrews said, "Remember those who are in bonds as though you are bound with them…" (Hebrews 13:3). We cannot afford to forget those who follow Jesus and suffer imprisonment or worse. We must remember them as though we are bound side by side to them. Furthermore, the writer says, "[Remember] those who are mistreated since you are in the body" (Hebrews 13:3). Many Christians today around the globe are mistreating, mocked, flogged, tortured, and raped. Knowing their plight, we should remember their suffering as though it were happening to us. For Paul wrote that as the body of Jesus Christ--one body with many members--when one part hurts the whole body suffers.

To remember them is more than having a random thought in their direction. It means knowing where they are and what they face. Remembering them means we recall their difficulties when  we pray, lifting them and their captors and persecutors to the Father. We can remember them through our efforts to support their families and encourage them to persevere for the gospel, choosing the prize of Jesus Christ over the suffering of this world. And yet we must also see our part and place in working for release of Christians imprisoned for the gospel and to strive to see every nation as a place of freedom where Christ can be worshiped as God and King.

You can specifically write to and encourage Christians suffering, persecuted, and imprisoned. For information on how to do so, click here. 

Take a Daniel moment:

1.  Praise God that He never leaves nor forsakes His followers.

2.  Celebrate the power of God's Spirit to endure all suffering and hardship.

3.  Pray for Christians facing persecution, imprisonment, poverty, and death around the world.

4.  Ask God what you can do to encourage them and bring hope through the gospel.

5.  What can you do?

He Gives and Takes Away

Over the years in ministry the most difficult circumstances have often been in regard to children. Seeing young children sick or die are especially hard. One that often we overlook are the scores of women who long to be mothers but their arms are still empty.

At times there are medical explanations and sometimes there's no explanation. Regardless, it doesn't change the heartache and longing in the heart of a woman who cannot conceive.

The Bible is dotted with the stories of women who found themselves childless. Sarai, Hannah, Rachel, Elizabeth, and others found their situation bitter and painful. A married woman who could not have children was viewed scornfully and even as one cursed by God.

Manoah was married to a woman who was unable to conceive. Yet God in his upper story was completely aware of this and would work through this not only to give her a son, but to give Israel a deliverer. And so it was that Samson was born and grew to be a man of incredible strength and courage, on whom the Spirit of the Lord rested powerfully.

The full story of Samson is quite tragic, reflecting a man who was often far more intent on living out his own desires than living out the will of God. But the beauty of his life was that he was a miracle. He was born to a father and mother who had probably come to think they may never have a child. And in spite of Samson's disobedience, God worked to deliver His people though it did not happen without Samson losing his power, his sight, his freedom, and ultimately his life.

God is the One who gives when the world has no power to give. He is the One who provides when there's no conceivable way to make it happen. Yet He is also the One who takes away, sometimes without explanation. Sometimes He withholds when we expected Him to pour it out on us.

God's power to give Manoah and his wife a child was a foretaste of His power to come on Mary so that she conceived to give birth to Jesus Christ, the Son of God. God gave the world His Son. And God would take His Son from the world by nailing Him to the cross. But praise God that we know both why He gave and why He took away. As a result, we today are able to celebrate how God rescued us from sin and death by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Take a Daniel moment:

1. Praise God that He both gives and takes away.
2. Lift up to Him your request for what you need and the desires of your heart.
3. Pray that God would give you a content heart with what He gives, what He withholds, and what He takes away.
4. Ask God to demonstrate His power to open wombs, forgive sin, raise the dead, provide for every need in your life and the lives of those you know are in need.