Giving solace and comfort to our oppressed brothers and sisters

The following is from an article by Lifeway Research:

According to Open Doors’ World Watch List 2022, last year more Christians were detained or killed for their faith and more churches were attacked or closed than the year before. In the past year, 360 million Christians, or 1 in 7 believers around the world, suffered significant persecution for their faith. Every day in 2021, an average of more than 16 believers were killed for following Jesus. With close to 6,000 total martyrs, 2021 saw a 24% increase in Christians killed for the faith.

And Aid To The Church In Need quotes Pope Francis as saying that "conditions for Christians are worse now than they were in the days of the early Church" and says:

ACN research is showing that Christian persecution is most sharply on the rise in South and East Asia, in countries like Myanmar, India, Pakistan, China and North Korea. That region is now the hot spot for persecution, taking over that dubious honor from the Middle East. Across Africa, jihadist violence against Christians remains at critical levels.

While many Christians in the West have nothing comparable in direct experience it behooves us, when we are made aware, to implore the Lord for mercy, grace, and strength to endure and for the Lord to glorify Himself through the suffering of His saints.

Tertullian once said, "The blood of Christians is the seed of the church." and a recent study conducted by Oxford University appears to confirm the ancient Christian’s wise words.

In a study of 166 countries from 2010 to 2020 published in the Oxford journal Sociology of Religion, researchers found, “The most important determinant of Christian vitality is the extent to which governments give official support to Christianity through their laws and policies. However, it is not in the way devout believers might expect. As governmental support for Christianity increases, the number of Christians declines significantly. This relationship holds even when accounting for other factors that might be driving Christian growth rates, such as overall demographic trends.”

It appears that the same Lord who has overcome the world is indeed building His church and the gates of hell are not prevailing. There is an eternal weight of glory being accumulated for the children of God.

As for pertinent Scriptures, it is difficult for someone who has not endured persecution to choose words of comfort for those who are persecuted. I would therefore defer to the words of the Apostle Paul and trust Almighty God, for the sake of Christ, to speak through him yet again.

Finally, brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may have free course, and be glorified, even as it is with you: And that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men: for all men have not faith. But the Lord is faithful, who shall stablish you, and keep you from evil. - 2 Thess. 3:1-3

Withal praying also for us, that God would open unto us a door of utterance, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in bonds: That I may make it manifest, as I ought to speak. - Colossians 4:3-4

We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is meet, because that your faith groweth exceedingly, and the charity of every one of you all toward each other aboundeth; So that we ourselves glory in you in the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that ye endure: Which is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God, that ye may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which ye also suffer: Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you; And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power; When he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe (because our testimony among you was believed) in that day. Wherefore also we pray always for you, that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfil all the good pleasure of his goodness, and the work of faith with power: That the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and ye in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. - 2 Thess. 1:3-12

If there is financial aid to be given, may the Lord guide to Godly, gospel-oriented organizations with low overhead. Pray without ceasing.

On the flip side, I would ask our brothers and sisters living under real persecution to pray for the church in the West, which languishes beneath a blanket of apathy and creature comfort.