Prayers for India

Today Ingrid and I helped to lead a young adult group at Solomon's local church. We invited the attendees, mostly college students like us, to divide into two groups to come up with a list of prayer requests for the youth in the United States. These prayer requests reflect needs in churches throughout India, and provide for us in the United States a meaningful way to pray for Christ's body in India. I hope that by working through this prayer list, compiled by thoughtful, God-seeking youth in South India who are well acquainted with the issues facing their nation and their faith, you will find greater solidarity in the worldwide body of Christ; the church which is at work in different and dynamic ways across oceans and continents.

This first prayer list comes from the boys:

1. Please pray for the protection of Indian churches from the anti-Christian groups that are sprouting out throughout India. These groups are moving to attack the Indian church politically and physically.

2. Pray for better church constructions, both in terms of the physical church building and the infrastructure of the church management. Many churches in India are very disorganized.

3. A significant issue in India is the keeping of the sabbath. Most Indian schools and workplaces do not close on Sundays, preventing many (particularly men) from being able to attend church without endangering their family's livelihoods or their grades. Pray that Christians in India have the courage to be counter-cultural and maintain sabbath worship, but also that their culture will grant them the right to abstain from work for the sake of church on Sundays.

4. Pray that basic needs in the church will be met: electricity, plumbing, roofing and bathrooms.

5. Pray that the people of India will worship in truth and humility, but not for "their name's sake."

6. Pray for the end of idolatry in India.

7. Pray for more musicians. This is a severe need in India. Truly skilled musicians and worship leaders are few and far between in the Indian Church.

8. Pray for the distribution of the Bible in India.

9. Pray for the end of corruption in Indian churches, government and society.

10. Pray that the church and all Christian communities would be concerned for the environment, and seek to bring an end to the severe pollution that plagues India.

11. Pray for the end of caste imbalance and discrimination towards backward groups.

This second list was compiled by the girls, and carries a much different tone. Their first prayer request struck me as being particularly graceful and timely.

1. Pray for Christian fathers, that they would serve their families whole-heartedly and not for the sake of the world or themselves.

2. Pray that the youth of India would grow in the love of Christ.

3. Pray that the church in India would be without involvement in politics.

4. Pray that India would be transformed from a Hindu to a Christian nation. (Yes, yes, yes!)

5. Pray that the poor would receive the means to construct their churches.

6. Pray for the missionaries who serve the poor in India; missionaries who live without basic needs, and who are often in danger.

7. Pray that the Bible would translated into all of India's one thousand, six hundred languages.

8. Pray that the Gospel would be heard all over the country, throughout Indian society, and by India's political leaders.

9. Pray for the people who are trapped in floods, and those who are trapped in droughts.

That's a lot to pray for!

Remember that one day there will be "a great multitude that no one can number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, 'Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!'" (Revelation 7:9-10) The day will come when we will stand with the global church, united under the banner of the Lamb who saved us all, praising Him as one body into eternity. This church began adding to its number in the 1st century AD, and continues to do so more than 2000 years later. What a glorious body it will be! Let's get a taste of that unity now, as we gather in the name of Jesus Christ to pray for the needs of His churches scattered throughout the nations.

God bless, and keep praying!

Max