God Hears Prayer Letters

Wouldn’t it be convenient if the Old Testament had been written in English? But it wasn’t. It was written in Hebrew, a language that would have been lost had it not been preserved in the Bible. Occasionally, English translations don’t quite convey the meaning of the Bible’s Hebrew words and phrases. I’ve learned that the Hebrew phrase translated “Your presence” actually says, “Your face[s]”.

In 2006, I released a CD of songs I wrote based on scripture. It was called apple of His eye and its mission statement was “Worship the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and pray for His people Israel”. I gave all the proceeds to two mission organizations. One was Messianic and the other focussed on Muslims. Knowing that Jews and Arabs are considered “stepbrothers”, I was thinking the best gift to give the Jews was Muslims who had learned to love and follow Jesus. 

Close relatives of my friend are Muslim background atheists. For years she has been trying to talk to them about Jesus but has been constantly rebuffed. Recently, personal tragedy along with unhealed pain has brought them together again. This time, they are welcoming her testimony and inviting meaningful conversation.

One night recently, right before heading for bed, I made the mistake of reading some articles detailing how our social order is descending into chaos. Not so long after falling asleep, I woke up with tinnitus screaming in my ear and dark thoughts swirling in my head. I put up with it for awhile, thinking it would go away, but soon realized I was responsible for taking these thoughts captive to Christ.

Thirty plus years ago, I began praying weekly with a community group to keep our local school open*. I was a new believer and had no clue how to pray, but my neighbors laid hands on me and prayed I would learn. 

Compelled by Christ’s love, in last week’s GHPL we prayed to prepare a Highway of Love on which Muslim men, women and children will run to Jesus, compelled by His love. Seeing as God sees and understanding His heart on the matter is the first part of preparing the highway; praying is the second part. What comes next?

An intercessor reported last week that as she began to pray for Muslim people, she heard the Lord say, “Stop seeing people by what they do or what they wear or their ethnic group. See people as I see them; they are My people. As you pray, I will show you their heart.” 

It’s a given that Canadian Christians have Muslim neighbors. Muslims comprise about 4.6% of our population, are distributed throughout Canada, have built mosques and Islamic centres, patronize hallal grocery stores and take part in most aspects of national life from Parliament to sports teams to comedy clubs.

We’ve been praying that in the “in-between time” from Jesus’ resurrection to His ascension (40 days) sandwiched between Passover and Pentecost (50 days) that Jesus would do again what He did with His disciples then, this time with seeking Muslims during Ramadan (30 days) – that He would show Himself to them as the resurrected Son of God “by many  proofs… and speaking about the Kingdom of God” (Ac 1:3).