- 75% of those persecuted for their faith around the world are persecuted because they are Christians.
- More people have been martyred for Christ in the last 100 years than in the previous 1,900 years combined.
Dear Lord,
Your ways are perfect. It is good for those who hate you to see those who love you suffer. It is good for those who love you to hold on to you in the midst of trouble. In this place, near your heart, we know you are good, we know you hear us, we know you are for us.
Would you hold your children near your heart today? Would you show them your strength and tender loving kindness? Would you protect their bodies and souls? Would you close the eyes of their enemies to conceal our brothers and sisters? Would you open the eyes of their enemies to your glory?
May the garden of their suffering yield fruit for the Kingdom 100-fold. May their momentary suffering be a fertilizer of hearts and souls to Jesus forever. May we, their immediate kin, enter into their suffering through knowing them and entering our Father's throne room with them daily. May their lives press us to see Jesus' sacrifice, and Jesus' crown.
They have been found worthy to suffer, putting on display again the mind and heart of Christ, who did not hold on to what he might have had in this world, but instead let it go to accomplish God's perfect plan and to embrace real life--eternal life. They have lost their life, and even despised it, to gain the hope of resurrection in belonging to God forever.
May we who suffer lightly in this world be ready to follow our brothers and sisters in complete obedience a the Spirit leads. May we not hold on to what does not matter. And may we not let go of what you have placed in our hands.
Because Jesus raised from the dead the third day, we know we will live forever with you. We know we belong to you. The realities of what is promised becomes even clearer than the mist of what is physical in this world. Our faith will be sight. This is blessed hope.
Amen.
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