Wake up then, and strengthen what remains that was about to die, because I have not found your deeds complete in the sight of my God. (Revelation 3:2)
I arrived in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan to teach a Christian leadership seminar, and was assigned two bodyguards who slept outside my room with an AK-47 rifle. I’m not sure how that fits into turning the other cheek, but I submitted to the brothers who lived in this environment, so hostile to Christians.
Ten years prior, Islamic extremists burned their Christian village to the ground. The man I stayed with had received three letters in the last month that warned him to renounce Christ or be killed.
A slap of violence sets one fully awake, and so the Pakistani believers were more aware in their worship than I. The price to follow Christ was too dear for a false claim. In prayer, they clutched their neighbor’s hands above their heads and pled to the throne of mercy. More than half of the women could recite at least one Bible chapterfrom memory. I took a break while they continued to study about prayer. When I returned, they had their faces pushed onto the floor crying in repentance for not having prayed enough.
Oh, that I might keep my faith in Jesus fresh. Except for the guns pointed at them, I long to be more like my Pakistani brothers and sisters. I try to wake up to the intensity of Christ’s love, but creature comforts anesthetize my heart from its urgent need.
Then, I remember those brown faces squinting upward. I recall our childlike jumping to God as we danced in unfettered reverence. Those memories are my smelling salts.
The secret worshipers were sharply aware of what they were doing in seeking Jesus, and they shook me awake also.
Prayer: Oh Lord, inspire my faith through persecuted believers.