5 Things to Pray for the Persecuted Church

Do you hear stories about the persecuted church and wonder how on earth you can pray something meaningful? Do you feel torn between praying for the persecution to stop and asking God to do something amazing through it? Perhaps you even feel guilty that you can’t do anything more to help. Here are a few ideas to help us pray faithful and informed prayers for our persecuted brothers and sisters in Asia and around the world.

Pray for real people and situations

Start by finding ways to learn what is happening. You could sign up to emails or prayer points from groups working with the persecuted church, and from mission organisations serving in difficult areas. By putting names and (where possible) faces to our prayers, we can relate far more easily to those we lift before the Lord.

Pray for faithfulness

It is not wrong to pray for persecution to stop. We can pray for peace. We can pray for justice. We can pray for authorities to intervene. But we must not forget to pray for the suffering church to be faithful through the trial. One of God’s purposes is that the faith of His people be tested and proven genuine. Let us pray that the faith of persecuted believers would hold up in the fire, and that this would be a powerful witness to God’s grace.

Pray for growth

It has been said that the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. Whilst governments and societies might reject Christ and His people, God regularly turns evil to good. Far from crushing the church in China or Iran, persecution has actually fuelled incredible growth. Let’s pray that persecuted believers in these nations and elsewhere would continue to share Christ with wisdom and boldness.

Pray for provision

The persecuted often end up hurt, displaced, marginalised and impoverished. We can pray for the felt presence of the Lord with them, asking Him to bring peace and comfort. But we can also pray for practical needs such as safe housing, legitimate work, good friends and fellowship in church.

Often, those who have suffered live in fear that their persecutors will come for them again. Pray that God would miraculously enable them to live without fear, even amid danger, and that He would be their sustainer day by day.

Pray for forgiving hearts

Finally, we can pray that those who suffered persecution might develop forgiving hearts, not holding on to the evil done against them, but showering their persecutors with grace. This can be a hard thing to pray, especially when we struggle to imagine doing this ourselves, but as we pray for believers to show forgiveness, we are asking God to put on display a picture of the work He has done for us in Christ.

Finally…

Keep in touch with the highs and lows of mission in Asia through our PrayerMate feed or monthly emails below.

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