How Blessed We Are

I started reading Safely Home by Randy Alcorn the other day, and before I finished reading the second chapter, I was struck by how blessed we Americans are...without even really appreciating it. Safely Home is a fictitious story about an ordinary, Christian Chinese man and an American businessman. Most of the little bit that I have read so far takes place in China.

Quan and his family get up at 2:00 a.m. on Sunday mornings and bicycle to a house church. They worship and pray but have to be finished and gone before dawn because prying eyes may see them after the sun comes up. Prying eyes can lead to arrest, imprisonment, or even death. Only a couple of people have Bibles, and the one that Quan has was hand-copied by his mother. During this particular meeting, the police storm in, threatening anyone who does not renounce God and leave. Quan fully expects to be beaten, at the least, and imprisoned, if not killed.

How different from our experiences here in the United States! I know that I am guilty of not praying for my persecuted brothers and sisters in Christ. I know that I do not appreciate the danger they are in and how easy my life is here. May God forgive me for my callousness, and may He use this book to soften my heart to what is happening right now in other countries.

Do you pray for the persecuted church? How so?