Persecuted Christians

Asia Bibi was arrested on June 19, 2009, after she engaged in an intense discussion with a group of women who worked with her. Answering their calls for her to accept Islam, Asia reportedly told them, “Jesus is alive, but Mohammad is dead. Our Christ is the true prophet of God, and yours is not true.”

Upon hearing this, the Muslim women became angry and began to beat Asia, who was taken into police custody and then later condemned to die.

Many countries of the world do not have freedom of religion as does the United States and various similar countries. In those countries, to be a Christian can often mean persecution, torture, loss of family or home or even death.  Each day countless numbers of those who have converted to Christianity are run down and imprisoned or prosecuted according to their nations “laws.” These laws are often contorted and misrepresented in hopes of ridding the country from a Godly influence of people and churches. We must pray for those who are being persecuted. We must defend their cause and cry out on their behalf. We must train up our children to be aware of these issues and if they are in a country where religion is practiced freely then we must also help them understand what a privledge they have that they must not take for granted.

Each day, please pray for the persecuted Christians of the world. Pray for Asia Bibi who was simply sharing her faith in God and yet has been imprisonsed for years now for doing so. Pray for Youcef Nadarkhani in Iran who has been sentence to death for his faith in God as well. These people are tortured for the cause of Christ and yet instead of giving up and denouncing God, they stand strong in their faith, face their enemies, and give God glory with each day of imprisonment they live.

Tell the children the stories of these true Christians. Tell the children the stories of those who have already been martyred. Get the children involved in the bigger picture and it will change their life.

Here are some prayer points that you can use when training your children to pray for these issues:

• pray that Christianity would spread instead of being destroyed
• pray that these cases of imprisonment would cause people to talk about God more and spread His Truth
• pray that those being persecuted would stay strong in their faith and not give up
• pray that those imprisoned would have favor with the guards and these guards would treat them well and be converted themselves
• pray that the governments and laws of the nations who persecute Christians would be changed to allow people to serve God without fear
• pray for the families of the persecuted that they would remain strong, keep praying, and put their faith in God
• pray for the health of those imprisoned that they would be able to have physical strength and health despite the conditions they live in
• pray that God would provide their needs
• pray for intercessors around the world who would pray for their cause, their release, and their strength

You can use our kids prayer guides to help in training children how to pray for the needs of the world.

You can find additional information about the persecuted Christians of the world at the following websites.

http://www.prisoneralert.com
http://voiceofthemartyrs.com
http://incontext.webs.com