Prayer Watch: They need to read their Scriptures, too!

As I was reading my Bible this morning, I had an overwhelming realization that this was meant for me. The more I get into God’s Word the more I realize He, the Lord Jesus, is talking to me. I’ve been reading Hebrews 10 over and over today. I just want His words to wash over me. It’s like a new understanding reading them over and over. Then I wrote these words in my journal. I’m sharing them here with you.

Since we have a great priest over the house of God,
let us draw near to God
with a sincere heart and
with the full assurance that faith brings,
having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience
and having our bodies washed with pure water.
Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess,
for he who promised is faithful.
And let us consider how we may spur one another
on toward love and good deeds. Hebrews 10:21-24 (NIV)

I’m sure you have had that experience of reading a portion of God’s Word and feeling like those words were written just for you. That’s because they are—all of Scripture was written to help us draw near to our Father God, with a sincere heart and clear conscience. That’s what Jesus did for us—everything the Holy God required—so we can be near our Father God. What a price Jesus paid because God loves us!

When I read these words in Hebrews, I also thought of our brothers and sisters in Jesus all across the world. Believers in small home churches in the Middle East, who love the Lord God. But, without God’s Word in their hands, they cannot be encouraged by these precious words.

Recently, one small home church received 10 Bibles in their language—one for each family. Scripture had been translated into their language, and they pleaded for just 10 printed Bibles. They live in a country where they may be killed for having a Bible, but they risked everything to get these copies of God’s precious Word. With God’s help, 10 Bibles were hand carried over 500 perilous miles from a neighboring country—taking five-weeks to arrive. Now, these 10 families read the precious words in Scripture—written just for them! My dear friends, there are thousands of small home churches where believers try to understand what God wants them to know about Himself—but the words are in a language not their own. The struggle is real. Their need is also very real. Their greatest desire is to know God and hear from Him in the language of their heart.

Today there are many language groups around the world hard at work translating Scripture—all of Scripture—into their own languages. It’s time for us to pray for our brothers and sisters in the Lord in countries of horrific persecution, in need of the written Word of God.

• Please ask the Lord to protect believers in their homes and in their churches where persecution continues in their countries.

• Please pray for church pastors and leaders who are teaching from Scripture not in their own language.

• Pray they will seek out help to learn to translate the Bible for their people.

• Please pray for imprisoned believers to have endurance, to know the love of Jesus, and for opportunities to reach out to their captors in love.

• Please ask the Lord to reveal Himself to the persecutors that they will turn from their hatred to love.

• Please pray for the partners to be able to keep printing Scripture in the heart languages in the countries of persecution.

• Please pray that Wycliffe Associates will be able to fund and be ready to carry-out the requests for printed Bibles and training materials once translations are completed.

And, let’s thank the Lord that Bible translation continues amid all of the problems brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic around the world.

Praying with you,
Prayer Coordinator
Wycliffe Associates