Prayer for the Lost
Reuters Photo - Yemen Mosque Attacks
There are forces at work against us.
That's the feeling some folks have these days.
Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, "For your sake we are being killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered." - Romans 8:35-36
But it seems that those forces of evil are out to kill everyone, not just Christians.
According to a report by Reuters, "Four bombers wearing explosive belts targeted worshippers in and around the crowded mosques. State news agency Saba, which is controlled by the Houthis, put the death toll at 137 and the number of wounded at 357."
The Islamic State's attack against fellow Muslims seems bizarre at first, until we look deeper and see that this is an attack against the Shi'ites, who they consider to be heretics.
The attacks against tourists and now worshippers have some believing the plan is to spread their reign of terror to every part of the globe, and for some unexplainable reason, people are flocking from all over the world to join the fight with them.
If the goal is to bring on Armageddon, thought, I am not so sure it will work. There is a limit to how much people will take before retaliating. Lately, reports have been circulating of Christians heading off to Iraq and Syria to fight against ISIS.
Is that the right response?
This is where it gets difficult for me. I would prefer a peaceful solution, but I don't know if that is likely to happen.
We believe that all things are possible in Christ. We put our faith in it, but like the apostles, we have our doubts, and those doubts corrupt our hopes and our faith.
Terror succeeds when people live in fear of it. How could one not be fearful, having witnessed the brutality of these lost sheep, but that is what we need to be.
If we stop worshipping and stop being tourists, and stop going to school and stop shopping in malls, if we lock ourselves away, what will become of this world?
Sure, it is easy to say we will keep doing what we are doing in the face of terrorism, but that is because we are here and not where the suicide bombers are.
When we are attacked on our own soil, we rise up as a people and become defiant. We come together and act as one.
Too bad we can't do that when we are not attacked.
So, what do we do?
Let's begin each day with a prayer for those injured and killed, and then, if we have the courage, if we can bring ourselves to be Christ-like, we can add a prayer for the lost.
More to c ome...