Let them know that you, whose name is the Lord—that you alone are the Most High over all the earth. (Ps. 83:18)
IN A FILTHY PRISON CELL, two prisoners stand together singing hymns. Their crime was sharing their faith—a charge neither of them denies. Six years earlier, one of the men, Niladri, was the leader of a paramilitary group that regularly beat and murdered Christians. While his six children lay sick and dying before him, he felt helpless. Neither the Hindu leaders nor local witch doctors had been able to help his children. One night, Niladri brought the body of his oldest daughter to the hospital for a death certificate. A pastor had a dream to go and talk to them.
The pastor, though trembling, made his way to the village to pray with Niladri. He prayed through the night. In the morning, all of his children, including the daughter who had died, were alive and healed! Niladri became a Christian the next day.
In Psalm 83, David prayed for God to intervene in the lives of his enemies. It seems as though he was asking God to punish them. He began the psalm by laying out the charge against them. Reading the psalm, we notice that his desire wasn’t that they would be punished but that, through God disrupting their lives, they would seek God’s face.
In the midst of being persecuted, David was praying for his persecutors to know that God reigns over all the earth.
Be faithful by praying for those who persecute you.
Jeff Hughes lives in Nebraska with his wife, Sarah, and their three kids. They spend weekends outdoors, hiking, camping, and skiing.
© 2017 Wesleyan Publishing House. Reprinted from Light from the Word. Used by permission.
