"Remember the prisoners... the mistreated... " Hebrews 13:3

Sunday we joined with thousands of churches around the world to pray for our brothers and sisters in Christ living in Egypt and the surrounding North Africa region. One Egyptian pastor expressed the hope of Christians amid an uncertain and hostile political climate saying, “Egyptian Christians are expressing a deep-rooted faith in God's providence and even enthusiasm over the prayers of Christians around the world… Probably right now we have more people praying for Egypt than ever before in our history. . . . And we know that God is going to answer those prayers."

http://www.persecutionblog.com/2011/01/coptic-christians-in-egypt-need-our-prayers.html Let’s continue to lift our brothers and sisters in Christ as well as our ministry partners serving in the North Africa region in prayer. Here is a list of specific ways you and your family can pray (from the Barnabasfund.org).

1. Praise God that He is all-knowing that in Christ He himself experienced shame, pain and agonising death, as well as the glorious resurrection. Thank Him for His promise: “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Josh 1:5).
2. Pray that all governments will work for justice and righteousness. While Jesus says that in this world we will have trouble, (John 16.33) He does not say that it will always be present in every place.
3. Pray that leaders of liberal democracies will use their influence to find ways to reduce, if not end, persecution in countries where it occurs. Just as Paul appealed to Caesar to seek justice (Acts 25), so Christians can appeal to secular governments.
4. Pray for the growth of the Church where persecution flourishes, remembering that “the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.”
5. Pray for strength and courage for those undergoing persecution, and for peace that only God can bring. Thank Him that His grace is sufficient for their needs (2 Cor 12:9). Pray that their faith will not fail, but that their suffering will draw them closer to Him and increase their faith.
6. Pray that the Holy Spirit will enable Christians facing persecution to forgive and love their persecutors (Matt 5:44) and that their Christ-like reactions will have an impact on their persecutors.
7. Pray that the Lord will be at work in the hearts of those who currently persecute our sisters and brothers to bring them to a saving knowledge of Himself, as He did with Saul of Tarsus (Acts 9).
8. Thank the Lord for the privilege of entering into the sufferings of our sisters and brothers, remembering that “if one part [of the body] suffers, every part suffers with it” (1 Cor 12:26).
9. Pray that Christians who are experiencing persecution will not lose the ability to accept or trust genuine approaches from those who have formerly persecuted them, as when the believers in Jerusalem had to learn to accept the reality of Saul’s conversion (Acts 9). Pray that the Lord will give discernment, and relief from unnecessary fears.
10. Pray for yourself and for your brothers and sisters in Christ to be spiritually ready for whatever tomorrow brings, be that persecution, respite from suffering or Christ’s return (Matt 24.42).