USA (MNN) — Today, most of us in the U.S. are surrounded by family and friends as we celebrate Thanksgiving. Let’s use the joy of that fellowship as a reminder to pray for our brothers and sisters in Christ who face persecution.
Voice of the Martyrs’ Todd Nettleton is reminded of Hebrews 13:3.
“Just picture yourself in prison: away from your family, surrounded by enemies of the Gospel, and think about how you would want people to pray for you. That can serve as a guide.”
Approaching prayer with mild trepidation is an understandable response. God doesn’t always answer prayer the way we think He should or in our timing. However, “we know that these prayers work,” Nettleton insists.
“I’m reminded of Peter Jasek, my co-worker here at Voice of the Martyrs, who spent 14 months in a prison in Sudan,” he continues. Read more about Peter Jasek here.
“One of the things that Peter has said [is] he could physically feel the prayers of Christians around the world.”
How does that work? Jasek said it was like being Daniel in the lions’ den.
Then Daniel said to the king, “O king, live forever! My God sent his angel and shut the lions’ mouths, and they have not harmed me, because I was found blameless before him; and also before you, O king, I have done no harm.” (Daniel 6:21 and 22)
“He actually was in a cell with ISIS fighters,” Nettleton recounts, “and yet, every night, he laid down and went right to sleep. It surprised even him! He was like, ‘Wow, this is pretty amazing, I’m going right to sleep and resting well’.”
After his release, Nettleton says, Jasek learned that members of his church had prayed for his safety every night at 9 pm – the same time prison guards turned out the lights.
“Peter experienced, literally, the answer to their prayers every night when he went to sleep.”
At icommittopray.com, you can read prayer requests from around the world and post your own prayers for persecuted Christians.
“Pray that God’s love will shine through those who are being persecuted – to their persecutors, to their fellow prisoners, to the judges and the lawyers – so that God’s Kingdom marches forward,” Nettleton requests.
“That’s one of the great miracles of persecution, that God uses it to further the Gospel work, but we need to pray for that to happen.”
Header image courtesy of Pixabay.
