The urgent prayer request came over the internet to whoever would read it. It may have been the author’s last post. His name is Amir and he lives in Syria. I have no face to put on Amir as I write about him because I have never met him and most likely never will in this life. But Amir is special to me because of a few short lines written in a desperate email—which was maybe his last. I have been praying and weeping for him and the people he represents ever since. Here’s what he said:
“Peace to you in Jesus’ name. Please pray for our brothers and sisters. ISIS today kidnapped 90 Christians from one village and now they try to enter another village to take more Christians from there. Please, please we have ministry there! We have brothers and sisters there! ISIS has started to kidnap and kill the Christians in that area. We have very bad situation now as a Christian, we have nothing to do just we can pray and ask you for you to pray with us. When you read this email maybe in the same time many Christian people are killed from ISIS.” Then Amir said these stirring words as he closed his message: “We are ready to go to Jesus now. Yes, we need your prayers with us and our families in Syria. God be with you.”*
I can’t fully explain the horrors that we hear and read about each day that are being perpetrated by ISIS, a radical Islamic terrorist demonic group that is rampaging throughout the Middle East—almost unchecked. I do know they are of the devil and only God and the prayers of the saints can stop their progress. No other countries around them or even our own seem to want to get involved and stop the slaughter of human beings. That’s why Amir is asking us to pray for our brothers and sisters, many who could be experiencing martyrdom as we speak.
Church history tells us that the persecution of Christians is nothing new. The early Christians experienced the terrors of Rome in similar fashion, prompting one of the early church fathers by the name of Tertullian (160-225), to write this famous quote, “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.” So as we pray for Amir and his people and their churches—know that we are also praying for ourselves as severe persecution appears to be headed our way as well. Jesus spoke of persecution in the Sermon on the Mount but he called it a blessing,
“Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” — Matthew 5:11-12
The apostle Peter also wrote to a persecuted and scattered church through the Middle East of his day with these encouraging words,
“And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, support, strengthen, and establish you. To him be the power forever and ever. Amen.” — 1 Peter 5:10-11
What promises! God bless you church and God bless Amir and our brothers and sisters in the Middle East. We love you. — Pastor Don
*Reported by Tom Doyle at https://www.facebook.com/8thirty8
To help us walk closer to God and to know Him better.
