What does it mean to live out our faith in a world full of pain and suffering? How can we watch SBS news and not feel totally overwhelmed at all the injustice in this world? I’ve found that it’s so easy to get numb and distant from the plight of the helpless and hopeless. I find that it’s easy to ignore issues ‘out there’ when I have enough issues of my own. But that only works until I read stories like the following. Keiyeng mentioned Sara Groves in a recent post. Here is how she’s trying to live out her faith, and make a difference in the here and now. It’s challenged me to action. Hopefully it will challenge you too:

Sara explains, “I believe God invites us to add to the beauty of his plan, letting us participate in his redemptive work. But I found myself asking, ‘How have I applied this idea?’ I had groomed and groomed and groomed my personal faith, but to what end?”

Her answers came in a series of global conversations and experiences, from the flood-ravaged gulf of Louisiana, to the genocide memorials of Rwanda, to the testimonies of Southeast Asia sex trade survivors. These experiences showed the disparity between some of the American [and Australian] pursuits of comfort and wealth and the joy of joining the difficult work of social justice and engaging in the suffering of the afflicted.

“One of the main inspirations behind this album is a girl named Elisabeth,” Sara says. “I knew about human trafficking and modern day slavery at some sort of global level, but I didn’t truly understand the personal stories behind what was happening until I met Elisabeth in Washington, D.C.”

Elisabeth’s story is both heartbreaking and phenomenal. The oldest of seven children living in Southeast Asia, the teenager had just finished her sophomore year of high school and decided to take a job in a neighboring community to save money for Bible college. But, tragically, she was betrayed by a traveling companion, kidnapped and sold to a brothel owner. She found herself days later in a foreign country, unable to speak the language, forced into a life of prostitution.

Sara relates the rest of the story: “Elizabeth prayed every night for God to rescue her, even though the other girls in the brothel mocked her. After eight months, an International Justice Mission operative was able to secure her freedom. While retrieving her belongings, they saw Psalm 27 written on the wall above her mattress in her tiny room: ‘The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid?’

“The phrase ‘social justice’ can be loaded. To some people it is a political or a liberal conversation, but to me, it is a Kingdom conversation. There are people behind these stories and statistics, and God’s heart for justice burns on their behalf. I wanted to write songs that drew attention to the people like Elizabeth who know God deeply because of their suffering. There is a commonality in all of these friends, and that is the perseverance of hope.”

Much of what Groves has learned has come through her new friends at International Justice Mission, an organization that stands in the gap for victims of violence, sexual exploitation, slavery and oppression when they are left without an advocate.  Her interactions with IJM, as well as recent mission trips to Rwanda and New Orleans, have brought a fresh sense of purpose and excitement to Sara’s life-long Christian faith.

“Much of what I had done before along the lines of service was guilt induced. When I would hear a horrific story, I would want to respond quickly, write a check, and be done with it. But I have met many incredible people who are responding with their lives, and that has exposed something in me. I have been given a lot of joy in life, but I’ve also missed something. All of my life I have been grooming my faith, but have missed something about the purpose of that grooming. If I understand scripture at all, I have to know that to enter into the suffering of the poor and the oppressed is to know Christ and his suffering.”

The Groves’ family look forward to learning more about how their lives will be useful in bringing hope to individuals like Elizabeth.

That night in Washington D.C., Elizabeth was asked to share the Psalm she had written on the wall as part of her testimony, but Elizabeth refused, stating that Psalm 27 was for the brothel. Instead, she said, she would read Psalm 34: ‘I sought the Lord, and He heard my cry. “When I met Elizabeth, I felt like I was in the presence of royalty,” says Sara. “She is a college graduate now, and with tremendous courage, has used her story to inspire action. I couldn’t get her out of my mind as I was writing these songs. She knows something about God that I will never know. Those verses are real to her in a way that I have never experienced. After meeting her, genocide survivors, and others who  suffered great oppression, I was humbled by my lack of understanding of life, of love, of courage, and of Christ, and was filled with a hunger to know more.”

Do you want to know more? Do you want to do something about it too? Then:

1. Come to church this Sunday as we learn about the Persecuted Church, and then pray for them (you’ll receive a 31-day prayer guide for North Korea – recently ranked #1 by Voice of the Martyrs for the 7th year running as the most persecuted people in the world).
2. Check out the International Justice Mission website and see what they do.
3. Also, Grace told us about the following organisation: The A21 Campaign. Check out their website – they have a list of 21 things you can do to help those caught in the horrifying slave trade. Last week, our challenge was to pray for the Persecuted Church in general. Next week we’ll focus on North Korea. This week, click on this following link and join me in praying for those in slavery.

Remember those in prison as if you were their fellow prisoners, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering(Hebrews 13:3).

As I read through the prayer card, my heart was moved at what our brothers and sisters in Christ endure for the sake of His Name. I’ve never really experienced such injustice or persecution myself. Go to the Barnabas Fund link above to read some of their stories. The Bible tells us that the Church will be persecuted (John 15:20). So if the Lord will continue to allow persecution, what exactly should we ask Him for when we pray about these situations? I’ve found that the ten points below are helpful guidance in bringing our persecuted brothers and sisters before the throne of grace (Hebrews 4:16).

1. God that He is all-knowing that in Christ He himself experienced shame, pain and agonising death, as well as the glorious resurrection. Thank Him for His promise: “I will never leave you nor forsake you”(Joshua 1:5, Matthew 28:20).

2. Pray that all governments will work for justice and righteousness. While Jesus says that in this world we will have trouble, (John 16.33) He does not say that it will always be present in every place.

3. Pray that leaders of liberal democracies will use their influence to find ways to reduce, if not end, persecution in countries where it occurs. Just as Paul appealed to Caesar to seek justice (Acts 25), so Christians can appeal to secular governments.

4. Pray for the growth of the Church where persecution flourishes, remembering that “the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church”.

5. Pray for strength and courage for those undergoing persecution, and for peace that only God can bring. Thank Him that His grace is sufficient for their needs (2 Cor 12:9). Pray that their faith will not fail, but that their suffering will draw them closer to Him and increase their faith.

6. Pray that the Holy Spirit will enable persecuted Christians to forgive and love their persecutors (Matt 5:44) and that their Christ-like reactions will have an impact on their persecutors.

7. Pray that the Lord will be at work in the hearts of those who currently persecute our sisters and brothers to bring them to a saving knowledge of Himself, as He did with Saul of Tarsus (Acts 9).

8. Thank the Lord for the privilege of entering into the sufferings of our sisters and brothers, remembering that “if one part [of the body] suffers, every part suffers with it” (1 Cor 12:26).

9. Pray that Christians who are experiencing persecution will not lose the ability to accept or trust genuine approaches from those who have formerly persecuted them, as when the believers in Jerusalem had to learn to accept the reality of Saul’s conversion (Acts 9). Pray that the Lord will give discernment, and relief from unnecessary fears.

10. Pray for yourself and for persecuted Christians to be spiritually ready for whatever tomorrow brings, be that persecution, respite from suffering or Christ’s return (Matt 24.42).