by Dan Bouchelle, MRN President

“Father, if you are willing, please take this cup from me. Yet, not my will but yours be done.”

For those of us in crisis or concerned for those in crisis, this seems like the most natural prayer. During the recent pandemic, we’ve all offered these prayers. We want our Father to make the hard things go away. We want to avoid suffering and loss. Who doesn’t? I’m grateful Jesus prayed this prayer, so we don’t have to feel shame when we pray for deliverance as we see trouble coming at us or those we love.

But prayers for deliverance are not the only or even necessarily the most helpful prayers for people in times of crisis. The reality is that we are always going to be facing some level of trouble in a broken world, and always asking for deliverance is not necessarily the most helpful way to pray about such things. There are at least three other types of prayer we need to offer for ourselves and kingdom workers around the world who are in the middle of hard situations.

Prayers of Examen and Refinement

In hard times we can see things about ourselves or our situation that are hidden in easy times. Troubles are stress tests for our spirits in the way cardiologists use them for our hearts. When we or those we’ve sent are going through hard times, we must pray that God will use this to help us see unredeemed areas in our lives and submit them to God for refinement. There can be real joy in this process - if we respond well!

This is what James was talking about when he told us that trials lead to maturity when we respond to them well in James 1:2-3. But this does not happen without much prayer. We must become like Paul asking for deliverance from his “thorn” only to understand that it was God’s gift to refine him (2 Cor. 12).

The people on the front lines of kingdom advancement in hard and dark places will either be refined or destroyed by hard times. They will be pushed beyond what they think they can bear (cf. 2 Cor. 1 and 4) only to find, if they respond well, that by God’s grace they become more than they ever imagined because of the troubles they encountered and the growth they would have experienced no other way. We need to pray that kingdom workers in crisis will discover things about themselves they never knew and submit to God’s power to be transformed in the process.

Prayers of Endurance and Honor

Jesus didn’t go to the cross so we wouldn’t have to suffer. Quite the opposite - He told us we were going to have to take up crosses. While our suffering doesn’t pay for the sins of others, it does reflect the gospel story and honor God in ways that almost nothing else can. The church is the body of Christ that continues to suffer for the world (Col. 1:24). There is power in enduring suffering with grace in a way that demonstrates the power of God and brings him glory. Sometimes suffering is not meant to reveal something to us, but to reveal who God is for others in bringing honor to the God revealed in our suffering.

When kingdom workers are in dangerous times or when they are overwhelmed by secondary trauma as they serve people who have experienced horrors, they need us to pray for their endurance and God’s grace to make them agents of comfort that bring God honor (cf. 2 Cor 1:1-11). Our first prayer should always be that those who serve God will bring him honor, not that he would provide escape (Php 1:12-18).

Prayers of Discernment and Empowerment

Hidden in every problem are opportunities if we have the wisdom to see them and the strength to embrace them. The hurricane that leaves many homeless is an opportunity for God’s people to show up and serve others who have no claim on us other than God’s love for them. The plague that makes most people run away can be the perfect time for disciples to run toward the trouble and put themselves at risk for the kingdom. The war and terrorism that creates death and dislocation can be the catalyst that opens refugees to their need for the true God and a better story. Paul and Silas being beaten and jailed was a horrible thing, but it led to the conversion of their jailer and the launch of a new church in his home (Act. 16). Jesus taught us to look for the opportunities to glorify God in the tragedies we encounter (John 9:3).

When people in forward positions of kingdom advancement are caught in a coup, or serving in a pandemic, or working with refugees from war, they need help to see past the ravages of evil to the cracks in the kingdom of darkness that allow the light to penetrate and liberate people with hope and life. They need supernatural power to do this hard work and not be overcome by the impacts of evil unleashed around them.

We have been greatly impacted at MRN by refugees in Europe who have fled the horrors of war and terrorism in the Middle East but told us not to pray for peace in their countries because it is the suffering that creates an opening for the gospel. That kind of vision comes in response to prayers for discernment and empowerment. Everyone who works in such a setting needs our prayer support for more than deliverance.

As we watch the events unfolding in Afghanistan, will you join us in lifting up these specific prayers?

- For those fleeing to the hills to be protected (Psalm 73, Psalm 91)

- For miraculous protection for women and children being forcibly taken and those that have already been taken for their protection, salvation, and deliverance. (2 Thess. 3:1-5)

- That the Afghan Church steps into her identity in Christ and walks in unity of the Holy Spirit. (Ezekiel 37, Romans 15:5-6)

Praying for Mission Points in Times of Crisis - August 2021