What Response to Persecution?

I wrote one of the poems in my book almost exactly a year ago.  I was reading an article in a Samaritan's Purse newsletter about a pastor who was in jail for being a Christian.  I wrote the poem from the perspective of the Persecuted Church.  Given everything that's been going on in the Middle East and North Africa right now, it seemed pertinent, so I've posted it below.

When people talk about situations like this, our first thought is usually about money.  If we're aware of the persecution at all (and too often we're not), we don't know how else to respond - we're so far away.

So we ask ourselves, can we donate anything to an organization that's already 'over there' trying to help?  For many of us, the answer is yes, and that's great.  But this should not be our initial response.  Our initial response should be prayer.

Here in America, we tend to ignore prayer.  We don't understand how it works, and we're too lazy to test it.  But prayer is powerful.  Prayer is active.  Prayer is our direct line of communication to God, and when we pray with our hearts set on him, things happen.

We should be praying for the Persecuted Church, in general and in detail when we know of particular issues.  Prayer should not be a fall-back if we're unable to do anything else; it should be the focal point of our response.

Convicted*

We sent out a message,

We asked for your prayers –

Our churches were being burned.

We held our dead elders,

We mourned our dead children,

But from everything we’ve heard,

You didn’t pray for us.

We begged for assistance,

We needed your help –

Our pastors were being jailed.

We gathered in secret,

We whispered in fear,

But from all that we can tell,

You never prayed for us.

We Facebooked and Tweeted,

We emailed and called –

We know the word got out.

We died for a Bible,

We starved for a song,

And yet we had our doubts

That you would pray for us.



*Copyright Rachel Lulich 2014.