Tuesday’s Prayers for Prisoners (1/5/2016)

I’m a month away from being seventy years old. Both of my knees are mostly blown out from playing football in my youth. My energy level is certainly not breaking any records on the get-up-and-go charts. The dreams I felt the Lord gave me as a young Christian – almost thirty years ago – have not happened as yet…and maybe they won’t ever happen.

But who knows? I could live for twenty more years, ten more years, five years, or just one day, but no matter what, God has a day circled on His calendar for me —

For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil. Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others… (2 Corinthians 5:10-11)

For the most part, I do my best to ask forgiveness for the things I’ve done, but this doesn’t bother me that much. It’s the things I haven’t done, and should have done, that frightens me.

So, do I like fasting?

No, not really that much.

But this one verse is like a laser burning a hole in my heart and pushing me forward each week —

Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body. (Hebrews 13:3)

Every person in Asia who does not know Jesus is a prisoner of the kingdom of darkness. This breaks the Lord’s heart and it better affect me in the same way.

My prayer for today:

Lord of the harvest, I pray that You would send out more laborers into the harvest fields of Asia. (Based on Luke 10:2)

Join with me on Tuesdays to fast and pray for prisoners in Asia, according to Hebrews 13:3.

Why Asia?

1. 4.4 billion people live in Asia.

2.. 85.4% of world’s unevangelized people live in Asia. (Unevangelized means they may have heard the gospel but have no understanding on how to respond.)

3. The world’s three largest non-Christian religions – Muslim, Hindu, and Buddhists – are based in Asia.

4. Of the 37 countries of the world that are less than 10% Christian, 32 are in Asia. Of the 14 countries, that are less than 2% Christian, 12 are in Asia.

5. 600 million people live in abject poverty in the slums of Asia. 

6. 85-90% of unreached people live in Asia. (Unreached means that they have never heard the name of Jesus.) (Operation World: The Definitive Prayer Guide to Every Nation)