I was watching Pastor Jack Hibbs this morning, pray for Afghanistan - he said something - something so true and so profound -
'Father God, bring out or bring home our brother and sisters, your sons and daughters' (speaking about the Christians facing imminent death and/or suffering in Afghanistan)
When he prayed this, I had to ask myself - am I praying earnestly? Because these are my brothers and sisters in Christ, God's very sons and daughters. I look around me, but most importantly within me, and I see a people who are so far removed from any suffering for their faith in Christ that we cannot understand what their lives will be like, Do I live each day knowing + caring that they are facing either imminent death or imminent suffering, or both - and then do I pray accordingly? I am so afraid that life will just go back to normal here, and the news will find the next story, and they will be forgotten. We have American citizens there, we have Afghans that helped us - now at great risk to their life - we have Christian brother and sisters there - are we pouring out our hearts before God asking Him to save them?
I am not minimizing the immense suffering in other places: places like in Myanmar/Burma, or the people affected by Hurricane Ida just this week, or the Haitians suffering from the August 14th earthquake + aftermath, or the communities, families ravaged by COVID, nor do I want to forget to pray for the brokenness and division in churches, families, friendships. It seems like there is just so much to process that sometimes it is tempting to draw my head into my shell, look the other way, and avoid the news. But what if, instead of avoiding, I prayed the headlines - took the time to find scripture to pray and committed to praying? We can't be about all things - we were never meant to carry it all nor were most of us called to figure it out or fix it...but we can and should and need to be praying for it all. What if I picked a time each day to pray specifically for God's grace and mercy and justice to be poured out on each and every person in each and every situation? Not generically - as if I don't know them - but literally specifically - with much care and concern. And then, find places that have boots on the ground, that are reputable, and backed up my praying with giving. Even just five dollars here, five dollars there...can make a difference.
Personally, I have never had to suffer for my faith - at least nothing more than maybe someone making fun of me or rejecting my offer of friendship. But I do know what it is like to be all alone in a scary mess, a crisis - and feel completely alone, overwhelmed, and forgotten. And I have cried out to God from Emergency Rooms in multiple hospitals, multiple times and asked Him to lay us on someone's heart - let someone come alongside and pray us through this. And He has and people - at the time unknowingly - have earnestly prayed for us, recited Scripture over us. We have also had people - people who were supposed to be our brothers and sisters in Christ, friends - we have had them brush off what we were going through and instead offered trite - 'well if you would just eat this vegetable, take this vitamin, think this positive thought etc; then you would not find yourself where you are' (those experiences in some small way remind me of Job's friends - so quick to judge, so hesitant to simply care and pray). I want to comfort others with the comfort I have been given. I want to pray earnestly, pray Scripture over my brothers and sisters in Christ...even if I only meet them for the first time in Heaven. Will you join me? I am going to try to post once a day for a while and earnestly and specifically pray for God to move and then trust that He will in His way and in His time.
Hebrews 13:3
Continue to remember those in prison as if you were together with them in prison, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering.
I want to leave you with this quote because I don't want us to forget what happens when we remain silent and simply look the other way.
FIRST THEY CAME By Martin Niemöller
First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out Because I was not a Communist
Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out Because I was not a Socialist
Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out Because I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out Because I was not a Jew
Then they came for me
And there was no one left To speak out for me.
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