In the days between Ascension and Pentecost, an action of prayer has been organised for a number of years under the name: 'Your kingdom come'. From mission, we gladly support that call. In the time between Ascension and the coming of the Pentecost Spirit, the disciples gathered to pray. In their hearts lived the question of the coming of the Kingdom (Acts 1:6). Like the disciples, it is good for us to pray especially in those days between Ascension and Pentecost for the coming of the Kingdom.
3.2 billion
Missionary counsellor Willem van 't Spijker asks that during these days, we also pray especially for so many people who live in countries where you don't easily encounter the name of Jesus Christ.
This year, mission deputies decided to join the NO CHOICE platform. One of the points NO CHOICE makes is that of the roughly 8 billion people in the world, some 3.2 billion do not have (free) access to the Gospel. According to NO CHOICE, that may be a bit more of a focus in our Dutch faith community.
Closer to home
I don't know about you, but these big numbers make my head spin a bit. So I often try to narrow things down a bit so that it becomes manageable. Imagine you live in Abcoude. Abcoude has just over eight thousand inhabitants. Not all those eight thousand people are Christians. The Christian faith community in Abcoude does try to reach the others with the good news about Jesus Christ, but it is not that easy. Because of those eight thousand, thirty-two hundred then have no (free) access to the Gospel. That's forty per cent of the population. Why is that so? There are several reasons for this. It is because they do not have a Bible in their own language, because they live in a neighbourhood where there is an oppressive regime, because the leading religion in their neighbourhood or street is so emphatic and dominant that the sound of the Gospel does not reach them. Abcoude's Christians do give money to reach their unbelieving fellow villagers, but less than five per cent of those Christians look back to those 'unreached' villagers. And of the money they raise to share the good news, less than five per cent goes towards work to reach those unreached villagers.
Prayer for workers
Back from Abcoude to that big world we live in. Forty per cent of eight billion people have no (free) access to the good news about the Lord Jesus. Because they do not have a Bible in their own language, because they live in a country where there is an oppressive regime, because the leading religion in their country is so emphatic and dominant that the sound of the Gospel does not reach them. Do they have a choice? Or do they have NO CHOICE?
As I think about this, a word of the Lord Jesus comes to mind. Matthew wrote it down in his gospel (chapter 9: 37-38). Jesus saw the crowds and He felt pity for them because they looked exhausted and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then He says to His disciples: the harvest is great, but there are few workers. So ask the owner of the harvest to send workers to bring in the harvest. The prayer for the coming of the kingdom is also a prayer for workers. Workers who want to commit themselves precisely to reaching their fellow men in those difficult areas with that very joyful message by their lived testimony and sometimes also - when possible - by their spoken testimony.
I gladly support the call to pray for the coming of the kingdom in the days between Ascension and Pentecost. But the prayer Your Kingdom Come does also ask that we do not limit our prayers to people in our network. May please that whole big world also be in our attention?
