It is interesting to me that Christians here in the United States (myself included) are all of a sudden horrified by the life-threatening persecution that believers in Iraq are facing. I have seen many of my friends and others ask for specific focused prayer for the Iraqi Christians.
Don't get me wrong -- that is what we should absolutely be doing! However, I find it ironic that it takes something like to be in the news to get us to act when there are more Christians martyred being for their faith around the world than at any other time in history. Why aren't we praying this fervently for the persecuted Christians in other parts of the world -- China, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia...just to name a few.
Jesus told his disciples that they could expect to be persecuted, but that the rewards for remaining faithful are great. In Matthew 5:11, he went so far to say, "blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me."
So the questions on my heart this morning are these:
- Is my faith strong enough to endure the kind of persecution that these Iraqi believers are enduring?
- Is the fact that I have never faced genuine, ongoing persecution a hedge of protection from the Lord or an indication that the enemy does not consider me a threat to his plans?
- Am I willing to make radical, long-term changes the way I pray and the things that I pray for?
- Will I remember to for these people when they are no longer in the news and my own problems come back into focus?
These questions are a whole lot easier ask than to answer.
This post was really timely for me because as I read what my sister had to say and the questions she posed I began to think about the Sunday school lesson I had just prepped for and taught my class. The lesson was out of Ezekiel 37 when God spoke to Ezekiel in a valley of dry bones.
"The hand of the Lord was on me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. 2 He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. 3 He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?”
I said, “Sovereign Lord, you alone know.”
4 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! 5 This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones: I will make breath[a] enter you, and you will come to life. 6 I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’”
7 So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. 8 I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them.
9 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Come, breath, from the four winds and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’” 10 So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army.
11 Then he said to me: “Son of man, these bones are the people of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.’ 12 Therefore prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: My people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel. 13 Then you, my people, will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. 14 I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the Lord have spoken, and I have done it, declares the Lord.’”
As I prepared for this lesson I kept thinking to myself, "am I like this valley of dry bones? Is my view of this world, politics, government, wars and violence so overwhelming that I have given up? Am I truly living each day with hope? Am I like Ezekiel trying to share this hope with people who have none?" When I studied this passage I thought about America and all our freedom and all we have available to us compared to so many other places, yet there is so much here we take for granted. Many times our churches are like country clubs and we get so caught up in attending and participating that we forget that if lost people are not coming in then we need to be going out. The valley of dry bones was a picture of what we look like in our sin and to me it was a picture of where our world is and all the people who are lost with no hope. Jesus is our hope and many times it is so easy to get tunnel vision and we lose sight of all that God is calling us to do that is right in front of our faces.
I loved my sister's call to fervent prayer and it made me want to not only work on my prayer life but strive to pray with power and conviction. Seeking the Spirit as I come before the throne of God. When a plant is not growing...it is dying. I don't want to be a Christian who just gets by, I want to strive to impact those around me. I want to pay attention to those the Lord puts in my path. I want to be deliberate when I pray and I want to be so devoted and passionate to my Lord that I would have the heart and bravery of all these Christians in the middle east standing for their beliefs and running for their lives. I don't want to be a country club Christian, I want to always be on mission looking for where I can bring hope to lives that are as empty as the dry bones God showed Ezekiel. I want to close with the questions my sister posed and I completely agree with her that these are much easier to ask than answer.
So the questions on my heart this morning are these:- Is my faith strong enough to endure the kind of persecution that these Iraqi believers are enduring?
- Is the fact that I have never faced genuine, ongoing persecution a hedge of protection from the Lord or an indication that the enemy does not consider me a threat to his plans?
- Am I willing to make radical, long-term changes the way I pray and the things that I pray for?
- Will I remember to for these people when they are no longer in the news and my own problems come back into focus?
These questions are a whole lot easier ask than to answer.
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