An Important Read About The Persecuted Church

 

I came across this article http://theweek.com/article/index/244665/christians-in-the-arab-world-a-guide# in "The Week", a news magazine ranked as "moderate" on Wikipedia's list of political magazines http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_political_magazines.  If it is even close to being accurate, and it does seem to line up with other articles I have read and with the few anecdotal accounts I have heard from Christian brothers and sisters living in the region,  we Christians need to pray that God would give strength to our fellows, resolve to our governments, and better minds and repentance to all those who persecute others for their faith, and especially for those who assault our brothers and sisters.  If you are not sure how to pray, I suggest the following:

Heavenly Father, continue with our brothers and sisters who are undergoing persecution for their faith.  Give them strength in their trials to be true to Jesus, and send your Blessed Holy Spirit to assure them that they are loved, and that we pray for them.  Preserve them and those they love. Inspire the people of our world in their governments and assemblies to eschew religious persecution and to oppose it however they can.  Bring those who persecute others for their faith to see the evil of their ways, and give them repentance and better minds.  Teach us to live as Christ in this world, that all people might come to see the truth of our faith, and might come to you without coercion, through the gentle and loving draw of the Holy Spirit and the example of your Son's love for us.  Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy, Lord have mercy.  In the Name of Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, One God, now and forever.  AMEN.