This past week or so, my Bible reading has taken me into Romans again. Have you read Romans recently? WOW! It’s packed full of how to live and how not to live. Over and over the writer tells us how much we are loved by the holy and just God. The only way I can describe His love for ALL people is that He loves us, in a HUGE way!
Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written:
“For your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:34–39 (NIV)
There are chapters in Romans that I read over and over. There is so much to take in. And as I read through the book of Romans, I know I’m learning more about God. And, I know my faith is becoming stronger.
Then I begin to think of all the people who have no opportunity to grow and mature in their faith. Unfortunately, they don’t have a Bible they can read since it’s not yet translated into their language. Millions of people without Scripture live incredibly difficult and painful lives. Persecution threatens and surrounds at all times. In the very midst of persecution there are followers of Jesus who are desperate! They are desperately hungry for God’s Word. They want training and the technology so they can translate Scripture for their people—they need to be able to translate the Bible in secret, hidden from their persecutors.
The Apostle Paul knew persecution and imprisonment. Please take a moment to listen to Tim Neu, Chief Operating Officer of Wycliffe Associates. He is speaking from Caesarea on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea telling about Paul the persecutor meeting Jesus.
Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!
How unsearchable his judgments,
and his paths beyond tracing out!
“Who has known the mind of the Lord?
Or who has been his counselor?”
“Who has ever given to God,
that God should repay them?”
For from him and through him and for him are all things.
To him be the glory forever! Amen.
Romans 11:33-36 (NIV)
My dear prayer partners as you read Scripture in the days ahead, please use it to pray for Jesus’s followers who are being persecuted for their faith. Let’s think about and pray for the believers who desperately want to translate God’s Word for their people.
Pray, too, for Wycliffe Associates as we seek new ways to provide tools and training to empower nationals to become Bible translators. Please pray that COVID-19 and a new wave of anti-Christian persecution will not hinder Wycliffe Associates ability to reach out to believers. Pray that these believers will be protected from this disease and protected from the ever-watchful persecutors.
Pray that the persecutors will meet the Jesus of Scripture and that they will have a Bible in their language too.
I’m praying over the Scriptures with you,
Prayer Coordinator
Wycliffe Associates
