“And you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next. For truly, I say to you, you will have not gone through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes.”
– Matthew 10:22–23
Whenever we read about persecution in the Bible, which is often as we’re reading through the New Testament, because it’s promised here by Jesus, we need to pause and to pray for our persecuted brothers and sisters around the world.
Matthew 10:22–23 Reminds us of the reality of Persecuted Christians around the World.
There are so many in our family, our brothers and sisters, who right now are experiencing this. They’re being hated by everyone around them because of their love for Jesus. What’s more, they’re being persecuted and imprisoned and isolated and punished in different ways. They’re following Jesus, they’re proclaiming Jesus, and it’s costing them greatly.
The Bible’s clear. When one part of the body hurts, the whole body hurts. So we need to identify with, pray for our brothers and sisters in Christ who are experiencing persecution, and at the same time to not be surprised in our own lives, wherever we might live.
Even if we live in a place where there is relative freedom to proclaim the gospel, to not shirk back in any way in fear from following Jesus and proclaiming Jesus, that we would not be afraid what others might think of us, or the risk that following Jesus and proclaiming Jesus might be to our reputation, to our comfort, maybe in some senses to our jobs, that whatever it may cost us, that we would faithfully follow Jesus, that we would follow in the footsteps of our brothers and sisters in places like North Korea, Somalia, and Yemen, and parts of India or Afghanistan, Pakistan.
Matthew 10:22–23 Reminds us to pray for Persecuted Christians around the World.
God, we pray right now for our brothers and sisters, your sons and daughters, our family in these countries. In places in the world where they are being persecuted for their faith in you. God, we pray for your strength for them. We pray for your help for them. Lord, we pray that you would uphold them with your righteous right hand. We pray that you would give them boldness to follow you and to proclaim you even at great costs.
God, we pray for those who are in prison. We pray that they would know your presence with them. They would know that we are interceding for them, that they would know that they are not alone. God, we pray that the gospel would spread through them even in prison, that what we see in the Book of Acts would be true today. Consider the threats against them and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. We pray for the salvation of jailers like we see in Acts 16.
God, we pray for the salvation of persecutors like we see in Saul’s life. God, would you take those who are persecuting Christians right now and transform their hearts to see Jesus, that those who are persecuting Christians would become proclaimers of the Gospel of Christ.
Praying for Boldness
God, we pray for them. We pray for all these things, and, God, we pray for our own lives. Help us to proclaim the gospel. Help us to be unashamed of the gospel, especially for those of us who live in places where we have such freedom, and yet we are often so silent with the gospel, how we’re not spreading the gospel, even though we have so many opportunities to do so.
God help us to be faithful, to follow you fully, to proclaim you boldly wherever we live. Whether we’re persecuted or not, in anticipation of the day when persecution will be no more, when we will be welcomed around your throne. We think about the martyrs around your throne right now, according to the Revelation, who are crying out for justice, and you are saying wait because there’s more of their number to come.
God, as we pray for our persecuted brothers and sisters and as we pray in our own lives, we say if we’re to be among that number, then we say, yes, Lord, we want to follow you. We want to proclaim you no matter what it costs us in this world. So help us all to do so faithfully all the way to the end. Help us to endure faithfully following you as disciples and making disciples of all the nations no matter what it costs all the way to the end. We pray in Jesus’ name, according to your word in Matthew 10:22–23. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
