Recently, I have been reading an interesting book about the growth and spread of Christianity within Communist China. Interestingly, there is in China a large "movement" toward faith in Christ. In spite of efforts to bring Christianity under government control, people are coming to learn about the nature of God and His redemption in Christ. Sometimes, they suffer great persecution. Also, they are confronted by grave dangers from false teaching (some of this influence is evident in the prayer). This is a translation of one believer’s prayer, offered to God in the early 1980s, making reference to the time of the so-called Cultural Revolution (c. 1966-1976) and even earlier.
O God, we thank you that you know the difficulties and dangers which your children are encountering. In the midst of these afflictions we confess our sins to you.
We ask that you might forgive all the ways great and small in which we have sinned against and resisted you during these past 20 years and have been such poor witnesses to you that your glory has been slighted. Forgive all the brothers and sisters in all the church who have been unfaithful, weak, and defeated before you!
We plead that you may forgive all the sins of each one of your servants through the Church in China. Forgive also the offense of the Chinese people as a whole in sinning against you and opposing you.
O God, have these 30 years of suffering which have used to chasten your children not been enough? We pray that you might put down the rod of chastisement and take away the whip of discipline, for your children are already down before your feet confessing their sins on their knees. We beg that you stretch forth your merciful protective arm to shield your flock!
In the midst of trouble we do accept the discipline you mete out with tears and loud cryings but O God, if these winds and waves are from you to discipline us, then we will rely upon your bountiful goodness and mercy, asking you that you might abundantly forgive. But, if these things come of the enemy’s attack, then in your name and in our position as the church standing on your promises, we bind the adversary Satan and destroy all his schemes and threats—we set at liberty your sons and daughters, we set at liberty your church, and in your name we command these winds and waves to be still! Preserve all the members of the Body; let not even one fall or be lost. Let not even one brother or sister be used of Satan!
O Lord, we don’t need to go through this kind of persecution again. What the church needs now is the revival that comes in the midst of oppression. We pray that you might protect and strengthen your children and revive your church.
This prayer is from a letter by a house-church Christian, as cited in China: The Church’s Long March, by David Adeney, pp. 153-4. In this context, a so-called "house-church Christian" is distinguished from a believer who has fallen victim to the insidious, government-controlled provisions by the Religious Affairs Bureau. Unfortunately, many (if not most) Christians in China are forced to meet and worship in small, family-oriented gatherings. To meet in larger gatherings is to invite severe persecution, including beatings and other tortures, isolation and imprisonment, and even death.
We are greatly blessed in this nation and the freedom of religion that we hold so dear is also the occasion of many splinters from the truth. Do we pray as fervently in our day, with our circumstances, as just this one Chinese saint who sees God’s providential hand in everything?
I wonder, again, have we so great a faith?
~end~