Brian Mills was asked by Andy Page from Prayer Alert what was on his heart for the Middle East and what burning issues we could be praying about. He said that, thinking about Easter and beyond, people everywhere can pray for the Muslim nations at this crucial time. The Middle East is the place where the passion of the cross took place, and at the cross Christ Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do’. Forgiveness is the primary element of the cross, and forgiveness needs to be in and with the people of this region. Wherever you look in the Middle East you see people in conflict. That needs to be recognised as we pray for the area, particularly Jerusalem. Forgiveness is very hard to find. Brian said that he was in Jerusalem recently and noticed that attitudes have hardened compared to when he was there a few years ago. He said that wherever you go in the Middle East you will see people at war with words and with weapons: we need to seek the Holy Spirit to touch and change lives.
Brian also mentioned that he had visited the United Arab Emirates recently, to attend a prayer gathering for the Middle East. Isaiah 19:23,24 was claimed for such a time as this, a time when God’s promise will be fulfilled and He will bring about a highway from Egypt to Assyria. The scripture says, ‘The Assyrians will come to Egypt, and the Egyptians to Assyria; and the Egyptians will worship with the Assyrians. On that day, Israel will be the third along with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing at the centre of the world.’ Brian commented, ‘Now is the time to pray for the areas of those nations to be together living in forgiveness: Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Israel and beyond. Pray for Arab nations currently torn apart by strife to be united.’
Brian also pointed to the prayer needs of Turkey. Pray for the people fleeing to Europe, pray for the borders of Turkey that are fraught with conflict, pray for the people confined by closed borders. It’s another country in a region where people are looking for answers, living in places torn apart by conflict. We have to pray that people will find physical and spiritual refuge in the safety of belonging to Jesus. We can also thank God for the way that Lebanon and Iraq are planting churches and seeing people born again of God’s Spirit. We can praise Him for the response to the gospel that mission and aid agencies are seeing in the Middle East.
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