Today we hear from Open Doors’ author and co-worker, Anneke Companjen. These are the concluding paragraphs of her first book, Hidden Sorrow, Lasting Joy:
In that chapter we read how the authorities won the crowd over and stoned Paul. They dragged him out of the city, thinking he was dead.
“Period!” Johan tells his audience. “The devil wanted to put a period here. Paul was finished as far as the enemy was concerned. But God had other plans. The story continues, ‘But after the disciples had gathered around him, he got up and went back into the city’ (Acts 14:20). Something happened that turned the devils period into God’s comma. What made the difference? The disciples’ prayer.”
God loves to change the devils periods into commas, and he’s still doing it today.
It is my heart’s desire that he will use you and me to make a difference in the lives of Christians who are persecuted for their faith around the world. We can reach out to them, each in our own church and community and in our own way, through awareness, through action, and most of all, through prayer.