Call to Prayer

During a few of our strolls in the north, we were stopped by a desire to pray for the surrounding villages to cry out to God to have mercy in this land. Once we stopped at a stadium overlooking a red earthen field. The call to prayer was rising up around us, beckoning us to remember God’s greatness and submit ourselves wholly to Him. As the sun was setting, we could see the lights turning on in the tiny villages cut into the steep hillsides. Minarets (towers used to amplify the call) jutted out over terraced fields and the call was echoed from one village to the next. It seemed as if we were in an amphitheatre, with the melodic chanting of the muzzeins declaring the fear of God across the land.

Was anybody listening? Was anyone struck with awe of the Creator of the universe? Was anyone touched with a desire to know Him? Many people here do not go to pray, unless it’s Friday noontime prayers. But yet every home has a prayer rug or two waiting to be unfolded when the call comes. The muzzeins are crying out, “God is great!” “Show us the straight path.” May this truly be the desire of their hearts. May it not be mere words, because He’s promised: “…you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I WILL be found by you.” (Jer 29:12-14)

People here fear God. They know there’s something more than what they see. They know there’s something greater, and they have a desire to submit to that greater power. But they don’t think they can know Him. They think that He is compassionate, loving, and kind, but not that He would be willing to die for them. They think good works earn them a right to be with God, and that you can never be assured of your salvation until the day comes. It breaks my heart because I know they can have that assurance. They can live in the reality that God not only is all powerful, but that He burns with desire for His people to know Him and love Him. God is a lover looking for lovers. Oh how God must weep over these people. Oh how God must weep that they think He is such a distant God. That there is no way they can truly know him. That they don’t know that He delights in them and desires to rescue them and to sing love songs over them for all eternity.

As we sat in the stadium the call engulfed us. I was overwhelmed with a tiny glimpse of God’s heart for these people. For me, the call to prayer which I hear five times a day is a call to remember the vision that God has given me. It’s a call to press on and face the hardships of living here, the frustrations of every day life. It’s a call to “consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task that the Lord Jesus has given me – the task of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace” (Acts 20:24).

I am confident of this, people of EVERY tongue, EVERY tribe, and EVERY nation will come to worship God in spirit and in truth through the blood of His son Jesus Christ. They will come before His throne with confidence and assurance that comes only through knowing they are sinners saved by grace alone. In this country there are 68 or more distinct language groups, most of which do not have a strong indigenous church.

I couldn’t help but think of all the tiny mosques that were crying out for people to worship God. Mosques are set up as houses of prayer. There’s little decoration and usually the main feature is just a courtyard where people can come to pray. No stage. No fancy aisles. Simplicity. These houses have been built specifically for people to gather and pray. And whether they are full of bodies or empty, they are still missing the presence of the Lord. They are still missing the power of the Holy Spirit. How amazing would it be if some day these minarets were calling people to come and worship, to come and give thanks to the Lord, our God and King whose love endures forever? How amazing would it be if these towers were crying out, “Come Lord Jesus Come! Come in power! Come swiftly!” And as the call rose up people would come from their houses, young and old, bride and bridegroom, priest and peasant, and gather together to fast and pray. If prophets could stand on the watchtowers and cry out: “Blow the trumpet in Zion. Sound my alarm on my holy hill. For the day of the Lord is coming. It is close at hand. Come, prepare for the wedding of the Lamb is coming! He is coming to conquer evil and to sweep His Bride off her feet. The Spirit and the Bride say come!”

He can do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine (Eph 3:20) and he said in His Word, “I am the Lord, the God of all mankind. Is anything too hard for me?” (Jer 32:27). Join with me in praying that God would do more than we can imagine. That these villages in the hills would seek Him, and that when His eyes roam the earth looking for those that are completely His, His gaze would stop here and see men and women seeking one thing: to know Him and to see Him in His glory.