I made the mistake (or was it?) of looking up things about
ISIS and their persecution of our brothers and sisters in Iraq. And now that I
write it…no it wasn’t a mistake. We’re told to remember those in chains as if
bound with them, and now I can’t forget.
It’s one thing to read it – another to see it.
Internet provides that opportunity, to see the reality of what’s happening,
even as I write this.
What I saw sickens me. Literally; it turns my stomach sour.
The pictures blink in my mind, snapshots of the misery and distress of
Christians I can’t help. There’s a father holding the headless body of his
little girl – beheaded as an example to Christians. There’s the body of a
woman, lying on the table, her head supported so that her blood can run freely
from the cut in her neck into a large, stainless steel bowl on the floor. There
are children, being carried and placed in a group around a flat-faced stone
while a man with a large gun stands by.
The father has an expression of desperate questioning. Maybe
he’s in shock, or wondering how people can be so cruel, wondering if he could
have prevented her cruel death, why she was killed, and not him.
The woman – is she dead already? She must be, from the
amount of blood in the bowl, or nearly so. The blood doesn’t look like I
thought it would. It’s a sick, pink color. What did she endure before they
killed her? How long did her pain last? Her hands are bound behind her back and
she’s undressed. The men around her show no remorse, no concern, no reaction to
what they’re doing. They look as if the whole thing is part of the daily
routine. How can we forgive them? Yet even Jesus forgave His heartless
tormentors.
The children – I can’t tell if they’re dead, but I don’t
think so. Their faces show - distress, fear or pain, maybe both. Whose children
are they? Are the men carrying them their fathers, forced to carry them there?
Are they heartless killers, gathering the lambs to the slaughter, so to speak –
and do they think of their own children and feel even a shred, just an inkling
of regret?
The children look tired. They look like they’ve given up.
No, they aren’t dead; they seem to support themselves, though they lean on each
other as if they’ve given up and have no strength, physical or emotional. I
want to gather them in my arms and hold them and comfort them. I want to soothe
their fears away.
But I can’t. I can’t hold them, I can’t stroke their hair,
and can’t rock them into calmness. I can’t protect them. I can’t take their
hands and give them even just one smile. They’re so helpless, so innocent – so scared.
They must wonder where their parents are, unless they
watched them being killed. They’re only 3, 5, maybe 8 years old. Do they
understand why this is happening? Do they know that Mommy and Daddy are gone
because they loved Jesus, and, if so, does that make them think that Jesus is
bad for letting this happen – or that the men are bad for hurting people who
follow Jesus?
I don’t know. I don’t know the individual stories. I don’t
know what to do. Will donating help? Is going to actually make a difference to
buy a t-shirt which says “I support Christians hurt by ISIS”, or something to
that effect? I don’t know! I wish I
did! What are we to do to help?
The only idea I have is fasting. What about a day of
fasting? I wonder if others will catch the heart of this…am I just being too emotional?
What should be our response to this?
My heart breaks for their pain. I don’t want to forget it.
But I don’t want to be satisfied with knowing that I care. If I stop there, I
might as well not care.
When Peter was imprisoned, the disciples spent time together
in prayer, just for him. The Lord set him free in a miraculous way (Acts 12).
The Lord may not immediately set our brothers and sisters free if we pray and
fast for them, but we can pray down Satan’s strongholds so they can feel the
comfort and peace of the Holy Spirit. So they can be strong, so that even
though their bodies are being destroyed and their homes taken and their lives
are being torn apart, they will know that there is hope in Christ, and that
ahead of them is only hope and joy and peace, whatever troubles they endure
now.
Our prayers are answered. Jesus is very much with them,
whether we pray or don’t pray, but we must
pray! We need to pray that they will stand strong, that they will be
encouraged, that they will not deny Him, that they will be comforted, and even
that they will escape.
We must stand with them. They cannot be forgotten.
What will we say when we stand before the judgment of God,
and He asks us what we did for our persecuted brothers and sisters? If we’re
honest, will we have to say that we cried a tear or two, and then returned to
our happy worship services or tv shows, or books or our Bible studies? Can you
imagine our shame and regret as we realize we did nothing to help them?
Even more compelling to me is the thought of the power of
our prayers. Imagine that you are the
one watching your family being torn apart – you’re running for your life, your
brother was caught and forced to deny his faith and still killed when he did,
your little sister is dead, and your father is about to be executed, and your
mother has disappeared. The situation is far from being resolved, and the Lord
is allowing you to go through this trial – but you are suddenly wrapped in a
peace that overwhelms you despite your circumstances. You feel the presence of
God and you know He loves you and is there with you. You know He feels your pain
and hurts with you. You remember that Jesus suffered too, and that He isn’t
asking more of you than He gave.
This is what our prayers can do. I don’t know how it works.
I know God is with them anyway. But somehow our prayers can pull down
strongholds through faith and by God’s grace, from thousands of miles away, we
can comfort them. And somehow, fasting adds to the power of that.
Maybe the fast wouldn’t be giving up all food for you –
maybe it would be a video games, or movies. Maybe it would be fasting from
shopping, or coffee, or snacking. Right now, what I can handle is fasting in
the mornings. I sometimes give up movies, but I don’t have time for movies
right now anyway, so it’s not much of a fast if I do that. I can’t manage not
eating at all without getting sick, so just fasting in the mornings works for
me. If gives me a few solid hours of focus and some hunger pangs to remind me
to pray, and it sticks with me throughout the day (as someone who relies
heavily on breakfast, I remember when
I don’t have it!)
You might fast for a few hours for one day or for a week.
Whatever. You might not fast at all. Whatever. Just pray. Just remember our
brothers and sisters in prayer. If you find an organization you trust to donate
towards the cause of helping Christians in Iraq, then donate (and let me know!
I haven’t found one yet) – and if you get a t-shirt out of the deal, good for
you! It will at least help spread awareness and help us not to forget soon.
Let’s love them like we would love ourselves and like we
would love our own families. They are our families. They need us.
