Friday, September 30, 2022

It is estimated that at any given time, several thousand believers in Christ are imprisoned in Muslim countries because of their determination to live for Christ as their Savior and Lord.

Most of them experience harsh and inhumane conditions. They are often given no food or access to legal help. The police beat them to dissuade them from following Christ and extract information and confessions about other believers. Some die at the hands of the police.

Prayer

O God, give our Christian brothers and sisters in prison grace in their severe trials. Give them strength to stand firm in their faith and stay loyal to you. Give them courage to resist Satan and his temptations. Deliver them from evil.

May they be comforted by thinking about Jesus “who endured such hostility against himself from sinners” (Hebrews 12:3).

Visit them, O Lord, in a special way. Manifest to them the love and compassion of Christ. Soothe their physical wounds and emotional hurts. Comfort their hearts, and help them forgive and love their enemies.

Come down and reveal yourself to them as you did with Daniel’s three friends in the fiery furnace. Assure them that their families are in your care. If it is your will, you can deliver them miraculously as you did with Peter. Yet if some will be put to death like John the Baptist and James, give them grace and strength to stand firm to the end.

Lord God, convict their tormentors. May every one of these tormentors, persecutors, and blasphemers turn to you as Saul of Tarsus did.

Help us, the ones who live in relative freedom, to remember those in prison as if we were their fellow prisoners, and those who are mistreated as if we ourselves were suffering (Hebrews 13:3).

To you, the God of all comfort, we owe our real freedom and our eternal life. In you we live and move and have our being (Acts 17:28). Amen.

Promise

He will guard the footsteps of his loyal servants, while the wicked will be silenced in darkness (1 Samuel 2:9, REB).

Friday, September 23, 2022

Muslim children, like all other children, are tender, impressionable, and fun-loving. They are innocent and full of life. Their numbers reach more than 300 million around the world.

The traditional Muslim family maintains a tight grip on its members, whatever their ages. This means that Muslim children enjoy much less freedom of choice and action than their peers in the West.

These and other factors make the conventional methods of evangelizing children, such as Sunday school and vacation Bible school, unworkable among Muslims. But other means have been tapped and used successfully, such as the internet, children’s literature, audio and video tapes, and radio and television programs.

Prayer

Lord Jesus, you showed special interest in and compassion for children. We ask you, in your mercy, to remember Muslim children.

Raise up an army of dedicated Gospel workers, full of the Holy Spirit, to work among them. Give those evangelists a burden, vision and preparation. Give them creative ideas of how to bring Muslim children to Jesus.

May Muslim children hear the Word preached in a clear and understandable way so they can receive new life in Christ. I pray that Jesus’ name will be glorified because of these children.

Almighty God in heaven, I pray that multitudes of little ones will shout “hosanna to the Son of David” in villages and cities of Muslim lands. Help children who believe in Jesus as their Savior bring their families to him, your Son, our Lord.

Promise

Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these” (Matthew 19:14, NIV).

This is what the LORD says: “Yes, captives will be taken from warriors, and plunder retrieved from the fierce; I will contend with those who contend with you, and your children I will save (Isaiah 49:25, NIV).

Friday, September 16, 2022

The Quran states that Jesus was a prophet. Various Muslim Hadiths (traditions of Muhammad) hold Christ in great esteem. Yet Christ is more than just an esteemed person and much greater than a prophet!

It is hard for Muslims to acknowledge that Jesus is greater than all else and that he is God in the flesh. And yet, that is exactly what we need to pray for this week, that Muslims will realize the uniqueness of Jesus, the only Lord, the only Savior, the only Redeemer.

Courageous twentieth-century Muslim writer, Taha Hussein, once was asked what he thought of Christ. He said: “Jesus is in a category by Himself!”^[1] May God bring many Muslims to believe that!

Prayer

Lord Jesus Christ, I worship you. You are the visible image of the invisible God. You existed before God made anything at all and you are supreme over all creation. You’re the Prince of peace, the Lamb that was slain for our sins. I pray that you reveal yourself to many Muslims today. Let them see that away from you there is no real submission to God, no pardon for sin, no true righteousness, no sure hope and no eternal life.

Be for them “wisdom from God… righteousness, holiness and redemption” (I Corinthians 1:30). Show them that you are indeed greater than Abraham, Moses and all others. Manifest your divine power to consume their sin of rejecting you. May they acknowledge you as the King over all kings and the Lord over all lords. May they run to you in faith, with repentance and complete reliance on your mighty power.

Promise

Of all the names in the world given to men, this is the only one by which we can be saved (Acts 4:12, NJB).

Footnotes

^[1] From an interview in which my grandfather was present.

Of the Muslim World

Friday, September 9, 2022

There are scores of cities in the world with populations of multiple millions. Many of those cities are in Islamic areas. People stream into cities from villages and rural settings to find jobs, better living conditions and a modern lifestyle. Large urban areas around the world increase by one person every second.

Some of those cities include Alexandria, Algiers, Amman, Ankara, Baghdad, Baku, Cairo, Casablanca, Chittagong, Dacca, Dakar, Islamabad, Istanbul, Izmir, Jakarta, Jeddah, Kabul, Karachi, Khartoum, Lahore, Meshhad, Riyadh, Tashkent, Tehran, Tripoli, and Tunis.

Big cities often evoke images of filth and poverty, crowded streets and heavy traffic, mobs and crime, drugs and alcohol, gangs and fear, hurt and despair.

Prayer

Compassionate Father and Sustainer, I intercede on behalf of Muslim cities, just as Abraham interceded for Sodom and Gomorrah. I ask you to save the “Sodoms and Gomorrahs” of the Muslim world today from their present misery and eternal doom.

In prayer, I come against the evil forces that spread hatred, corruption, wickedness, crime, and all kinds of sin in these urban areas. In the name of Jesus, I stand against Satan who controls these places. I take authority over him and claim his defeat in the cities of Islam. May your Word be declared with courage and clarity. May people find comfort and hope in you. May they repent by the thousands and millions and accept Christ as Savior and Lord.

God, help us to hear the cries of city dwellers and take the Good News of Jesus to them. Send trained and effective workers to proclaim hope and joy in Christ. Give us courage and compassion to go to those in the slums and squatter camps and bring them peace and joy in Christ.

Promise

If the Lord is pleased with us, he will lead us into that land… and will give it to us (Numbers 14:8).

The Church

Friday, September 2, 2022

Some Muslims, out of fanaticism, others out of hatred or ignorance, have set themselves as enemies of the Church of Jesus Christ, our Lord and King. This is not new. Paul tells us that in his time many were enemies of the cross of Christ (Philippians 3:18). And sadly, many people today think they can demolish the Church and wipe out Christianity.

Yet the Word of God has promised us, “Those who trust in the Lord are like the mountain of Jerusalem, steady and can never be shaken. As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so God surrounds his people both now and forevermore” (Psalm 125:1-2, SAB).

Prayer

Lord Jesus, King and Master of the universe, you promised us to build your Church and that the gates of hell shall not prevail against her. We strongly believe that. So, I pray for mercy for those who have made themselves enemies of the cross. They think they are doing God a favor. You created them, you sustain and bless them out of your abundance; yet they try to destroy your people!

That is why I intercede for them. They are dead in sin and are sliding into a dark, Christless eternity away from you. O God, have mercy on them. Shed your light into their hearts. Fill their minds with your peace. Break their stubbornness by the power of your Holy Spirit. Change them from being Satan’s tools of shame and puppets of dishonor into vessels of honor used for the glory of God’s name. Only you, eternal God, can bring them into your Kingdom and bless them with genuine faith in Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord.

In his name I pray. Amen.

Promise

Every weapon forged to be against you will not succeed. Everyone who rises against you in judgment, you will have the ruling against him (Isaiah 54:17, SAB).