Praying for Muslims

During the break, Paul, our intern asked us to pray for the Muslim population at their set prayer times. I was pretty excited to get a chance to do this activity. It has just been recently that I have truly had a heart for the Muslim culture. Realizing how much they need Jesus has been eating at me for a few months. Learning about their culture and gaining a better understanding really helped me to pray for them.

Paul gave us four dates with six times for each day. Some of these times were crazy early! The first two times were in the 5 and 6 o’ clock hours and those were the hardest for me to get up for prayer. During this short time, I felt so legalistic in my prayers. I cannot imagine serving a God who will only listen during certain times. I directed my prayer for the heart of the Muslim people. I want Jesus to grab a hold of their heart in anyway possible. The Muslim culture highly esteems prayers and visions. I prayed that Jesus would appear to them as well as place Christians in their lives to minister to them. During prayer, I also prayed for the missionaries ministering to Muslims that they will have boldness to preach to the Muslim people.

Halfway through the days I did begin to get discouraged. I have met Muslim people but do not know any personally. I wanted to see or hear about what God was doing in the lives of Muslims. It began to feel monotonous. Was I really accomplishing by praying at these exact times? Attempting to get up early was becoming a challenge too. I was becoming selfish; I am on break, why should I get up early to pray for people I have never met. I realized that they need prayer. Having a heart for the lost gets tiring. That is when I realized how much I was clinging to my quiet time and prayer journal. Writing down my thoughts really helped and God encouraged me about His heart for the Muslims. He desires to see them want to serve Him.

This was an amazing experience and I realized that I do have a heart for Muslims and want to see them get to serve the same beautiful Savior that I serve.