Message to Smyrna

As I write this it is very early morning, Sunday, Jan. 16, a day of international fasting for the persecuted Christians of Iran. I marked it on my calendar 10 days ago when I learned of the fast. Last night I had a dream about Islam. I think it is safe to say that I have never dreamed about Islam before, so perhaps the Lord was confirming or reminding me of the fast.

This morning I happened to read God's message to the church at Smyrna:

"Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and for ten days you will have tribulation. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life."

I was struck by the fact that the devil was "about to" throw the believers of Smyrna into prison-and God was not going to stop him. Though He is the Almighty, He had no plans to scuttle Satan's plot or to prevent the deaths of His saints. Indeed, He tells His saints to "be faithful unto death."

Christians in countries like ours where persecution is still of the "soft" form and not the "hard" form would do well to notice this fact. It is not as if prayer has failed if God does not come to our deliverance right away. There is a devotional on faith by L.B. Cowman that I have taped on the wall over my bed and that reads in part:

"In our training in the faith life there must be room for the trial of faith, the discipline of faith, the patience of faith, the courage of faith."

Cowman's insight, combined with the present Iranian Christians' experience, is instructive to me. We know that the prayers of righteous men are particularly powerful (James 5:16). And who is righteous if not the martyrs? I ask myself how the Iranians must feel and how they must handle it when their prayers for deliverance from prison are not granted. Do they say, like Christ, "Any yet, Father, your will be done"? Do some of them even prefer to be "tortured, refusing to accept release, so that they might rise again to a better life" (Hebrews 11:35)?

There is, it seems, a level of maturity where one is no longer overly concerned with whether a prayer for deliverance is answered in this life or only by passing through death to the next:

"I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, this will turn out for my deliverance . . . whether by life or by death" (Philippians 1:19-20).

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