I walk into the mosque. It's late at night, the last call of prayer for the day. The room for women is empty, but I hear men walking into the other room, going to join their friends who are already seated. The imam begins the call to prayer, with each note piercing my heart. It's an audible sign of lostness, focusing my heart even more on how these people are kept in chains by a false gospel. The men begin their prayers and I am broken. They are bowing and praying, trying to find their way to God because they don't realize that God has already made His way to us.
The smell of incense envelops me. The prayers led by the imam in the other room blare through speakers into the women's room. I feel the spiritual warfare occurring in the room and focus my attention on praying for the power of Jesus to break the chains Satan has on this people group. My heart burns with a desire to see many, many come to know Jesus.
"Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.
For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes." Romans 10:1-4
For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes." Romans 10:1-4
My feet sink into the carpet as I stand in a spot that so many women have stood in before me. I begin to think...
What if this was my life?What if it was me who stood here and knelt here to pray, hoping that I could find my way to God?
What if it was me who was held captive by the false gospel of Islam?
What if I was the one without hope, without assurance of salvation, and without the understanding of how much God loves us, that He even sent His Son for us so that we could have a perfect relationship with Him again?
I suddenly realize that, if I was the one without Jesus, I would want someone to tell me the good news about Jesus. I wouldn't want people to pass me on the street, in the store, and at school, ignoring me and keeping their good news to themselves. I would want someone to come to me, to invest in my life, to love me, and to repeatedly tell me and explain to me the good news of Jesus. I would want someone to leave their way of life, their comforts, and their culture in order to enter my life and my community and share Jesus with me.
"How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?" Romans 10:14
Please pray that we would find favor with the Arab women we meet this summer, that their hearts would be open to the Gospel, and that we would be faithful witnesses in sharing the good news of Jesus and showing them His love in our words and actions.