为中国祈祷
Pray for
About a month or so before the 2008 Summer Olympics started, I received an e-mail from Voice of the Martyrs asking if I would like a wristband that simply said, Pray for China. On this gray wristband, those words were written in English on one side and in Chinese on the other. I accepted their gracious offer and when it arrived, I placed it on my wrist and I have been wearing it ever since.
The Summer Games have long ended and I still wear the wristband. I don’t even like wearing a watch, so I don’t….but I wear this! It is a good reminder for me. It is a reminder that the church is suffering, that the church is being persecuted. It is a reminder that the body of Christ is hurting. There is a “body part” that is feeling pressure, pain, hurt. They feel the direct impact of that persecution, but as a member of the body, I suffer as well. If you are a believer, you do too!
There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of us all, who is above all and through all and in all. Ephesians 4:4-6
We are ONE body!!!! Let that sink in because I think too often we do not. As crazy as it sounds, we sometimes see other believers as competition as opposed to brothers. We treat them like the enemy instead of like brothers and sisters in the Lord. When one part of the body suffers, the entire body suffers…we have just numbed ourselves to the pain. We turn a blind eye and not only do we not recognize the pain, we are oblivious to it.
Here is something I heard just last week at Catalyst:
“We need to let God break our hearts with the things that break His heart.” Craig Groeschel
We do…we need to have our hearts beat like His…have a passion and compassion like His….have a desire like His….and have our hearts broken….just like Jesus! And that includes seeing/feeling His body being persecuted and hurting, and then doing what we can do to alleviate that pain; starting with praying for the persecuted church…not just in China, but globally. I am sure God’s heart breaks for His people. He loves us and He sent Jesus to die for us! We need to have a heart like that.
One more quote from Catalyst:
“If we are looking at God then there is no way we can stay the way we are.” Brenda Salter McNeal
