Join us in today’s devotion and prayer-
Read the Psalm in your favorite version or in the following KJV and then join us in praying below:
88 O lord God of my salvation, I have cried day and night before thee:
2 Let my prayer come before thee: incline thine ear unto my cry;
3 For my soul is full of troubles: and my life draweth nigh unto the grave.
4 I am counted with them that go down into the pit: I am as a man that hath no strength:
5 Free among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave, whom thou rememberest no more: and they are cut off from thy hand.
6 Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the deeps.
7 Thy wrath lieth hard upon me, and thou hast afflicted me with all thy waves. Selah.
8 Thou hast put away mine acquaintance far from me; thou hast made me an abomination unto them: I am shut up, and I cannot come forth.
9 Mine eye mourneth by reason of affliction: Lord, I have called daily upon thee, I have stretched out my hands unto thee.
10 Wilt thou show wonders to the dead? shall the dead arise and praise thee?
Selah.
11 Shall thy lovingkindness be declared in the grave? or thy faithfulness in destruction?
12 Shall thy wonders be known in the dark? and thy righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?
13 But unto thee have I cried, O Lord; and in the morning shall my prayer prevent thee.
14 Lord, why castest thou off my soul? why hidest thou thy face from me?
15 I am afflicted and ready to die from my youth up: while I suffer thy terrors I am distracted.
16 Thy fierce wrath goeth over me; thy terrors have cut me off.
17 They came round about me daily like water; they compassed me about together.
18 Lover and friend hast thou put far from me, and mine acquaintance into darkness. (KJV)
O Lord, God of our salvation; we cry out day and night before you. Let our prayers come before you; incline your ear to our cry! For many who love and serve your Son Jesus face persecution and their lives are full of troubles and sadness yet they praise you and your Spirit helps them feel joy in the midst of it all.
So many of our brothers and sisters in far away places are hiding from persecution, particularly Christians in Israel. Many of your faithful ones are being sacrificed. Their children see their parents injured or killed before their very own eyes while they pray to you.
Many are being dragged away into captivity and servitude while their captors are chanting false prayers and praise supposedly to you in the process and appealing to a false book and prophet for their motivations and justifications.
This is the greatest era of Christian martyrs since the first century and it continues in your name. Rise up O Lord and bring down this enemy, let your signs and wonders save your little ones, let the plans of the evil one be thwarted and his minions destroyed. Their blood cries out from the dust and their children cry daily for your action and resolution.
Many are saying that we may see the day soon when all churches in the Middle East will be destroyed and every Christian there forced to convert to Islam or be killed or expelled. Ancient communities that have survived for nearly two thousand years are being ground in the dust while those of us who are comfortable in the West are doing nothing or very little. We also pray for our brothers and sisters in India and China who are being persecuted and face demands to give up their faith.
Rise O God, bring revival among those captors and bring visions, miracles, and healings that convert the armies of the enemy to the truth of your Son Jesus. Bring a halt to the terror and death they are bringing to those called by your Son; the servants of your Kingdom. The evil one would destroy them all, but reverse it O Lord and bring new converts to the truth and build up new churches and communities from among the very ones who are bringing the terror.
Let your Kingdom come in their midst and let your Word be demonstrated on the earth as it is in Heaven.
In Jesus name, Amen.