Now in its 24th year, the annual call to prayer for Muslims coincides each year with the month of Ramadan, which this year runs from June 6 to July 5. Ramadan is based on the Islamic calendar, which is a lunar calendar; as a result, it moves by 11 days each year. Additionally, some countries have slight variations depending on when the moon is first sighted.
This prayer blog will be used to post prayers during the 30-day period of prayer. The prayer guide (click on the image for the link to the web page) is available as a downloadable PDF or as a printed booklet (limited quantities still available as of this writing). I invite anyone who is interested to contribute to the prayers here, or to pray on your own for the world of Islam.
From the standpoint of challenges to the Gospel, perhaps no challenge today is more formidable than that of Islam. In many places, Islam is growing faster than Christianity. With the exception of North Korea, the countries where Christians are persecuted most harshly are all Muslim countries. Islamic extremism takes many more forms than just the terrorist acts that pop up in our news headlines.
And yet, God has promised that the gates of hell (and Islam is certainly one of those!) will not prevail against his church. Please join in prayer for all that God longs to do in the world of Islam.
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July 5: Movements
Father, please open our eyes to the fact that the Church is not a building or a collection of buildings, but the community of your people - and that movements to Christ are best seen in changed lives and communities rather than in the construction of buildings.
Where buildings are needed, please raise up the resources to build them. But please keep property and buildings from becoming an idol for the Church at large and for local churches. Lead your people to value connection, community, outreach, and service more than physical structures. Where physical structures can enhance and sustain those ministries, bring them about by your power - but keep us from being caught up in them.
Thank you for the people movements to you across North Africa and for the fact that these movements don't depend on church buildings. Please continue to spread these movements, growing believers in discipleship and in evangelism, expanding your kingdom in both breadth and depth in the lives of individuals.
In Jesus' name. Amen.
July 4: Bible Translation
Father, thank you for the translations of your Word into multiple local Arabic languages, and for the ensuing movements of Muslims to yourself. We praise you, Lord, that your word is living and active - relevant to all cultures at all times, and yet still unchanging in its truth. Please expand the work of translation so that all local Muslim languages and dialects have your word available to them in their heart language.
Unify your church in the pursuit of Muslims for you. Grant your people wisdom as they share the Gospel to know how to share it in a culturally relevant and Biblically faithful way. Draw Muslims to yourself through your word and in the context of their own cultures.
In Jesus' name. Amen.
July 3: Dream Catchers
Father, thank you for sending dreams of Jesus to Muslims to expose them to the truth of your word. Thank you for finding a way to reach them even in the midst of severe restrictions on preaching and evangelism. Please continue to reveal yourself in this way to Muslims all over the world, and cause them to respond to what you reveal. Raise up people to help them interpret the dreams you send, just as you raised up Joseph and Daniel. In Jesus' name. Amen.
July 2 - Refugees: Yida Camp
Father, thank you for the witness that you have raised up for yourself in the Yida camp. Thank you for refugees there who are believers and who are trying to reach out to their Muslim countrymen with the Gospel. Thank you for the local churches and for the vision you have given them to reach each of the more than 70 ethnic groups in the camp. Thank you for the opportunities to hear and respond to the Gospel that people in the camp have. Please reap a rich harvest among them, calling many from each ethnic group to yourself and growing them in unity, fellowship, and maturity.
Please continue to provide for the physical needs of the refugees in this and other camps. Give the leaders of the camps wisdom to be good stewards of the resources that you send their way. Make your church around the world a source of blessing both physical and spiritual for these refugee camps.
And Lord, please bring peace back to Sudan, so that refugees in camps there may soon return home. Resolve the conflicts in a way that is just and fair - we pray for more than just the absence of war, Lord, but for real peace built on a foundation of justice and fairness.
In Jesus' name. Amen.
July 1: Refugees - Syrians on an uncertain journey
Father, thank you for using the conflict in Syria to bring many Muslims into areas where they can more freely encounter the Gospel and circumstances where their hearts are open to your word. Thank you for using the evil of ISIS to cause many Muslims to question their religion and the values it embraces and to be open to hearing and considering the Gospel. Lord, please take every Syrian who is on a geographical journey away from home also on a spiritual journey to a permanent home in Christ.
Raise up your church in the areas to which Syrians are fleeing, to reach out to them with friendship, compassion, and your grace. Provide the resources your church needs in order to serve the needs of these refugees who have so little. Provide for the refugees - spiritually, emotionally, physically, and psychologically. Enable the children to attend school and get an education that will open doors for them to escape the poverty in which they now find themselves.
And Lord, raise up peacemakers in Syria. Give wisdom to international leaders to enable a quick resolution to the conflict. Bring your judgment on those who prolong war for their own selfish ends, and bless those who are working for a just peace. Restore what the locusts of war have taken from this country - and do this in a way that makes your power and love obvious to millions who today do not know you, so that they may be brought into your kingdom.
In Jesus' name. Amen.
June 30: The Rohingya (Refugees)
Father, please hear the cries of the Rohingya people and bring a just resolution of the conflict that has made refugees of them. Place it in the hearts of Myanmar's leaders to recognize this people group and make provision for their citizenship, as was previously the case.
Provide for the Rohingya refugees in the places to which they have fled. Raise up your church as channels of your love and grace to them. Through the prayers, witness, and aid of your people may many Rohingyas in many different places be brought to you. Grant the hope of the Gospel to the Rohingyas, and strengthen the hands of those organizations around the world working to give them opportunities to thrive and live in the dignity for which you created them.
In Jesus' name. Amen.
June 29: Immigration
Father, thank you for the way you orchestrate the lives of individuals and the paths of entire people groups to draw people to yourself. Thank you for the many immigrants around the world and here in the United States. Open their hearts in the midst of new and often unfamiliar and even intimidating circumstances to the truth of your word. Show these immigrants their need for a Savior, and bring them into contact with vibrant Christians and churches where they can learn the Truth.
Please raise up your church in the United States to take seriously ministry to immigrants. Strengthen and empower organizations working with refugees, with international students, with those who have been trafficked, and with other immigrants. Place it in the hearts of believers to reach out with your love and with the Gospel to those you are bringing to our shores.
In Jesus' name. Amen.
June 28: Luton - A Stand Against Extremism
Father, thank you for Peter Adams in Luton and others who are taking a stand against violence and extremism - both Islamic extremism and anti-Islamic extremism. Characterize your people by faith, not fear, in our relationships and dealings with Muslims. Characterize those relationships by love, grace, and peace.
Islam has set itself up as the enemy of Christianity - but Lord, you call us to love our enemies. And while the belief systems may be incompatible, that doesn't keep us from having friendships personally. Remind us often, Lord, of your commands to pray for those who persecute us. Bring us often to the example of Paul, who always wanted to name Christ among those who had not heard and did not know Jesus - despite opposition and persecution.
Move your church past stereotypes of Muslims and help us - help me - to see them as you do: as people desperately in need of your grace, and in that way, as people just like us. May our conversations with them both public and private be full of grace, seasoned with salt. Empower us to speak the truth in love, not in hatred.
Lord God, we often need your help and strength to forgive. Forgive us our anger against those we've never met. Cleanse our hearts and replace that anger and bitterness with forgiveness, love, and grace. We can't do it on our own, Lord. Help us to desire the kind of forgiving and loving lives you want for us. Forgive us for holding on to our anger and desire for revenge; purify us and help us to call out to you as Jesus did, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."
In Jesus' name. Amen.
June 27: Seeking God's Presence
Father, thank you for the testimony of many Muslims whom you have drawn to yourself through your Son. Please continue to spread a sense of lack of fulfillment in Islam, the realization that something is missing, and the desire to really know You. Open doors for Muslims who are honestly seeking the truth to encounter the Gospel through the witness of your people, through satellite and other media, through any means that you would use to advance your kingdom.
Please protect and grow the Muslims who turn to you. Make their lives and their words a testimony to their families, that you would draw entire households to yourself. Grant them wisdom, courage, and boldness to share their faith in ways that are effective and that advance your kingdom.
In Jesus' name. Amen.
June 26: The Journey of Faith
Father, we praise you that your word is truth and that Jesus is THE way, truth, and life. Thank you for the many Muslims around the world who are beginning to discover this. Thank you for how you have used even the Qur'an itself to cause many Muslims to begin to look for a different answer; for how you have revealed the contradictions and the dark side of the life of Muhammad to many; for how you have used the violent nature of Islam - all to cause Muslims to question their beliefs and begin to search for answers elsewhere. Please reveal yourself to Muslims worldwide who are searching for you. Draw them by your grace into a saving relationship with Jesus. Amen.
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