Psalm 59 Prayer Points:

Prayer for the Persecuted Church

Lord Jesus, we pray for Your persecuted church around the world.  You know that many ‘rise up against’ Your church.  Many ‘lie in wait’ for the lives of Your people.  Our brothers and sisters of all ages suffer economic deprivation, social ostracization, family rejection, and violence.  In one way of looking at their evil, these enemies of God prowl ‘howling like dogs’ and they are ‘bellowing with their mouths with swords in their lips.’  Even though these workers of iniquity hurt Your bride, the church, You hold these governments ‘in derision.’  You ‘laugh at them.’

May Your church remember and bless Your name and ‘sing of Your strength.’

Prayer from the church in North America

Dear Lord, we feel a sense of self-reproach, confusion, even questioning as we pray for the persecuted church.  Will we ever face the reality of what David felt?  Why do we in the United States not suffer as so many believers suffer?  While there are answers that could help us, we know that we are underserving of Your grace.  In the meantime, we ‘will sing of Your strength and of Your steadfast love in the morning.’  You, O Lord, are ‘the God who shows me steadfast love.”  In the powerful name of Jesus.  Amen.