An Epistle in Prayer for the Forgotten Church in Syria

Michael Milton:

Dearly Beloved of God in Syria: 

May the peace and protection of the living Christ be known by you, for He who raised you to new life does surely walk through the turmoil, into the insidious carnage of chemical weapons, and beyond the shadow of inhumanity and into the rising, dark cloud of war. He who walks among you, though you may not fully discern His presence, is the very One who walked on the Sea of Galilee in the midst of another storm. He is not only calling His Church in Syria to recall your glorious place in the Body of Christ: the preaching of Peter, the baptism of Saul of Tarsus, St. Paul’s evangelistic ministry in the marketplace there, all the way to the faithful who stood against the Nestorian controversy at Chalcedon (the denial of Christ’s two natures—fully God and fully Man, not Man assuming Deity but God in the flesh born of the Virgin Mary), and courageous church planters who are establishing Golden Lamp-stands even now—He is calling you who are under threat to join with the glorious company of prophets, apostles, martyrs, persecuted believers and anonymous faithful, known fully by God, who did not bow the knee to Baal or deny the blessed name of Christ. Your brothers and sisters in the Lord Jesus in all of the beautiful parts of the mosaic of the Body of Christ catholic remember you: 

As we pray for you; 

As some of you in the Church in Syria have been granted a voice for righteousness, to speak for those who cannot—whatever their creed, for they are made in the image of God;

As you share Christ Jesus in Word and deed; 

As we seek to follow your Godly example; and 

As we see the transcendent glory of Jesus in our times through your tears and cries for Him. 

We are not what we should be as intercessors and we repent, asking that your suffering and your faithfulness will bring about a revival of prayer in the West, thereby removing the scales from our eyes as your father, Ananias, did unto Saul in Damascus. 

Thus we pray through the Holy Scriptures remembering you, loving you in pleas for your protection before the throne of Grace, and praying through these Scriptures which we dedicate to believers in chains in Syria and throughout the world: 

“But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God; Partly, whilst ye were made a gazingstock both by reproaches and afflictions; and partly, whilst ye became companions of them that were so used. For ye had compassion of me in my bonds, and took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourselves that ye have in heaven a better and an enduring substance. Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward. For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry” (Hebrews 10:12, 33-37 KJV). 

As we pray for others in these times we pray for you O Church in Syria, believing that through you, we may see the genuine revival from on high coming down to transform millions in the Middle East to our God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who reigns with Thee O Father and the Holy Spirit, One God forever and ever. Amen.