International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church (IDOP)
The International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church is observed on the first Sunday of November. Research suggests that more than 245 million Christians are persecuted. “Persecuted Christians” refers to any person who is harassed or attacked simply because they identify as being a Christian. Examples of persecution faced by Christians include but is not limited to, physical attack, imprisonment, slavery, discrimination, and other forms of severe punishment.
94% of the most persecuting nations are within the “10/40 Window”
Pray!
1. Pray for the Believers: Peace, Endurance, Passion, Faith, Joy, wisdom – “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account” ~ Matt 5:11
2. Pray for the Persecutors: That they would be saved – “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” ~ Matt 5:44
3. Pray for the gospel to continue to spread: – a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb ~ Revelation 7:9
Resources
About the Resources
- Open doors is an organization that serves persecuted Christians in more than 60 countries
- Joshua Project is a research initiative seeking to highlight the ethnic people groups of the world with the fewest followers of Christ
- Operation World is widely regarded as the definitive volume of prayer information about the geopolitical nations on our planet
- “Nik Ripkin” is the world’s leading expert on the persecuted church in Muslim contexts. He is a missions veteran of 30 years, having served primarily in North Africa and the Middle East. He is the author of several books about persecution. He and his wife have done extensive research on the persecuted church, and on Muslim background believers, in approximately 72 countries.
Links
- Open Doors USA Top 50 countries most difficult to follow Jesus: https://www.opendoorsusa.org/christian-persecution/world-watch-list
- Open Doors – prayer calendar and app: https://www.opendoorsusa.org/take-action/pray/monthly-prayer-calendar
- Joshua Project Unreached of the Day – Pray for the 365 most unreached people groups in the world: http://unreachedoftheday.com (website or app)
- Operation World – Pray for the nations: https://operationworld.org/ (website, app, book)
- Nik Ripkin’s books on Christian Book Store.