Source: Mike Jones, Frontiers UK, June 2, 2017
When my Muslim friend Jemal came to our home, he wanted to talk to me about the spirits that had been bothering him in his bedroom. We’d only been living in Jemal’s country for less than a year, so, aware of my limited language ability, I decided to point him to some Bible stories showing Jesus’ authority over spirits. As we started reading, he shut the Bible and said, “I don’t want to talk about spirits. Tell me, who was Jesus and why did he come?”
As I reflect on that hot summer evening and my weak attempt to answer Jemal’s wonderful question, I’m reminded of the Apostle Paul’s request to the early church: “Pray for us… that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ… Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should” (Colossians 4:4).
If Paul could imagine himself speaking the gospel in a way that was not clear, bold, and powerful, how much more can we imagine that for ourselves? Think of it: The greatest gospel ambassador who ever lived (besides the Lord Jesus) said the effectiveness of his speaking about Christ depended on the prayers of the Church. If that was true for Paul, it is true many times over for us.
As we ask God to open up doors in the great unreached areas of the Muslim world, we encourage you to join us in praying that our workers have a clear and powerful message to take through those doors.
» As we pray for Muslims and Muslim communities we should remember that they are quite diverse. See Challenging the Concept of the Muslim World (Circumpolar blog).