Dear friends and fellow pray-ers!
Like some of you; this morning I awoke to a Facebook security message asking me to reply whether I was safe, in view of an explosion which took place just recently. It turned out to be a world-wide error by Facebook, in response to an explosion which just took place in Pakistan (I googled it to find out). It nevertheless touched a nerve in me; in view of all the recent unsettling events world-wide. It could well have occurred on our soil, and there have been and continue to be attempts here to orchestrate just such a terror event as we have seen recently in Brussels and Paris.
When criminals consider their heinous crimes to be holy acts of a holy war and pleasing to their god, then we are facing a new and infinitely worse level of evil. As Christians we shouldn’t be surprised what the evil one is capable of, especially as his time on earth is reaching its final stage (Revelation 20:10).
One of the worst forms of evil which, unlike the sudden death caused by of a terror related explosion, or its wounding or lasting maiming effects, is the entrapment and daily abuse of other human beings through slavery. As we have seen before; it often touches the people group we are and have been praying for: refugees and internally displaced persons (IDP’s).
What should our response as intercessors be to such overwhelming evil? I can think of no better one than the one recommended by our Lord Himself: The Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:9-13)! In it is contained what our response should be. I believe that not only does it evoke the best answer from God to a seemingly ever increasing form of evil but keeps us in a place of calm and peace. For it keeps our eyes on Him, who is our wisdom, our safety and our peace (Is. 26:3-4; Thess. 3:16; 1 Cor. 1:30; Ps 46:1-3).
We just celebrated Easter and I realise that Jesus Himself lived that prayer to perfection; He lived “hallowing” or highly honouring the name of the Father, submitting to and serving His will, ushering in God’s Kingdom (as its King and Humble Servant), giving the hungry bread and much more, He Himself delivering us from evil through His death and resurrection and, tortured, mocked and in His dying breath; asking for forgiveness for His tormentors and murderers “because they knew not what they did”.
The depth of Christ’s life and words are infinitely worthwhile to read about and to meditate upon. They continuously have the effect of transforming us and bringing us His life, through faith.
Enjoy this final day of this year’s Easter break!
P.S.
Below some info and stats on the worldwide situation regarding slavery:
Contemporary slavery, also known as modern slavery, refers to the institution of slavery that continue to exist in the present day. Estimates of the number of slaves today range from around 21 million to 29 million. Modern slavery is a multibillion-dollar industry with estimates of up to $35 billion generated annually.
The Global Slavery Index 2013 states that 10 nations account for 76 percent of the world’s enslaved. India has the most slaves of any country, at 14 million (over 1% of the population). China has the second-largest number with 2.9 million slaves, followed by Pakistan with 2.1 million, Nigeria with 701,000, Ethiopia with 651,000, Russia with 516,000, Thailand with 473,000, Congo with 462,000, Myanmar with 384,000, and Bangladesh with 343,000.
An estimated 22% of slaves to date are active in the sex industry.
Children comprise about 26% of the slaves today. Most are domestic workers or work in cocoa, cotton or fishing industries. Many are trafficked and sexually exploited. In war-torn countries, children have been kidnapped and sold to political parties to be used as child soldiers. Forced child labor is the dominant form of slavery in Haiti.
Mainly driven by the culture in certain regions, early or forced marriage is a form of slavery that affects millions of women and girls all over the world. When families cannot support their children, the daughters are often married off to the males of wealthier, more powerful families. These men are often significantly older than the girls. The females are forced into lives whose main purpose is to serve their husbands. This oftentimes fosters an environment for physical, verbal and sexual abuse.
Islamist
In 2003 Shaykh Saleh Al-Fawzan, a member at that time of the Senior Council of Clerics, Saudi Arabia’s highest religious body, issued a fatwa stating “Slavery is a part of Islam. Slavery is part of jihad, and jihad will remain as long there is Islam,” and that anyone who says otherwise “is an infidel.”
Two Islamist groups, Boko Haram and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, have supported the practice of slavery. In 2014, both groups were reported to have kidnapped large numbers of girls and younger women. According to an August 2015 story in The New York Times, in territory of the Islamic State, “the trade in Yazidi women and girls has created a persistent infrastructure, with a network of warehouses where the victims are held, viewing rooms where they are inspected and marketed, and a dedicated fleet of buses used to transport them.”
Quotations taken from Wikipedia website