Pray for the Muslim World
30-Days Muslim Prayer Guide 2009
Order your "30-Days of Prayer for the Muslim World" prayer guide here.
Our booklet is translated into some 42 languages available from some 32 distribution centers. A Kids / Family edition is also available!
The annual, worldwide, 30-Days Muslim Prayer Focus is for Christians to humbly learn about Islam and pray for Muslims during Ramadan (Islam's important annual month of fasting and religious observance). This years motto: "Loving Muslims Through Prayer"
Each year a new prayer guide booklet is published in a number of languages and locations around the world. The booklet is fully illustrated and contains daily readings with prayer points and informative background articles focusing on the Muslim world.
To look at bulk order discount prices in other countries and languages, which start at 10 copies, check our Ordering web page here. (www.30-days.net)
Also available: a Children's edition booklet (36 page, fully illustrated, complete with puzzles, "Did you Know" sections and much more). Ideal for the whole family!
Order your hardcopy 30-Days Muslim Prayer Focus Booklets while supplies last.
Pass this on to all the Christians you know.
Thanks, Ron and the 30-Days Team
Is prayer dead?
There seems to be so little interest these days in prayer guides. What is the reason? Or am I wrong?
And of course I know that there are so many available, it seems like a flood. At the same time, I know of so many prayer guides which are not being printed anymore due to lack of interest.
I would be interested to know if anyone else thinks the same.
I was just wondering how we " Christians " would feel if " Muslim's " decided that " Christians " have good intentions but unfortunately have got their religion mixed up and need the "Real" truth" reveled to them !
Therefore " Muslim's " will pray for " Christians " to come to understand and accept Islam as the one true way to God and will set aside the month of Easter or Christmas because " Christians " are more prone to be influenced during their Holy times and need to be saved ! ......
........so?
........how would we feel?
I would be interested to know if anyone else thinks the same.
I don't have an answer to your hypothetical question. But I have an observation. I live in a country where 50% of the population is Muslim. I often share with Muslims that I am praying for them. Invariably they thank me for my prayers. In my ESL classes, my Muslim students often ask for prayer. I usually invite them to pray with me and they are happy to do so. In my experience, prayer offered in a spirit of love and respect has never been refused.
Dear Mr. Smith,
I don't think the Muslims have their religion all mixed up. I don't pray for Muslims to accept Christianity or embrace the Christian religion. I do pray for Muslims to get to know Allah better - to see Him as He really is. I pray they will experience Allah's love and His desire to have relationship with them in a way they never have experienced before.
Why pray especially during this time? Mainly because Muslims are more spiritually aware during Ramadan. But if I don't build relationship with them all year long - special overtures during this holy month won't amount to much.
Miriam
Muslims do believe that Christians are mistaken and that the Bible is corrupted and I am sure Muslims do pray that Christians will convert. They are very active in their evangelism. This does not worry me as a Christian, God says: 'You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.' (Jeremiah 29:13) When I seek God with all my heart I find the loving, forgiving, awesome God that sent Jesus into this world. Any prayers that I might know this God in a deeper way are more than welcome.
There is not room here to go into the historical, biblical or personal reasons why I place my confidence in Jesus. Suffice it to say that knowing him I am compelled to share this knowledge and love and pray that everyone might be given the chance to make an informed choice for themselves.
I am intending to follow the muslim example and fast and pray during their month of Ramadan. A young muslim man I spoke to at a university graduation ceremony in Toowoomba said, they fast during the day to know what it is like to be poor and without food.
Fasting, as a biblical principal, is being abandoned along with kneeling to pray, putting football before church, and TV before God's Word.
How can we expect God to answer our prayers if we don't follow His guidelines given to us in the Bible?
Janet Woolard
Master Ed Studs: USQ
I was confronted once by two trainee mullahs on an internet chat channel compelling me to convert to Islam...they spoke and used similar methods of persausion and fervency as i would have used to bring them to the saving grace of our Lord....this opened my eyes to the fact that you are dealing with people who are just as zealous and passionate, if not more so than you or I are about what they believe, they have a mindset of what they believe and that wont change until it is effected by something stronger from outside...i.e. Holy Spirit revelation of the truth (Jesus)
that there is something missing in their faith without Jesus.
Osama bin Laden certainly has the answer--his latest message included a call for the conversion of Christians to Islam. It is one of his solutions to the muslim-christian conflict problem. My idea would be just the opposite, it would certainly be more peaceful!
Assuming that you really do mean that they would actually be pleading to God on my behalf (which is different from al-salat, in my understanding), I would be absolutely delighted. Jesus said that He is the way, the truth and the life...who couldn't be happy about ANYONE, Muslim or not, seeking truth?
Our intent is, or should be, that God would guide all humankind into truth. What better prayer could a Muslim pray for Christians at Easter? I would welcome such prayers and I am sure our Lord would honour them. I for one certainly do not have all the truth that is in Jesus (or Isa), whom the Gospel refers to as Truth himself. Are we willing that He should lead us all, Muslims, Christians, Jews, atheists, whatever, deeper into truth? I find much in Islam that is true - may God lead them and us ever more deeply into the Truth.
I love it when my muslim friends tell me that they are praying for me! Even if it's as simple as "lord willing you will be a muslim." It means that God is being brought into our relationship! Has Mr. Smith ever asked a muslim what s/he thought about Christian friends praying that the Almighty would reveal himself to her/him? We westerners often feel so threatened by religion in general, that we assume everyone else in the world feels that way. But that's not the case. I'm sure there are a wide range of opinions on this matter.
Throughout Islamic history Muslims have continually sought to convert Christians and show them the right path, be it by preaching and persuasion or by the sword. They are commanded to do dawah to all peoples. However, this does not offend me, because we are in a spiritual warfare and should expect people to be opposed to the gospel and trying to convince us otherwise. However, we have the Truth who revealed the Father to us, while they only have law revealed from an unknowable god who is always something other than we can image. Therefore, we should pray for God's mercy and grace to come upon them, for they are like sheep without a shepherd. Why not make a focused time for that or we will forget?
We have no problems with the fact that Muslims may pray for us as Christians. Great things we are told are wrought through prayer more than we can ever know. The difference for us is that talking about Christianity as a religion sells it short. You can argue the right/wrong causes of religion which many still do and have always done throught history but thr reality for Christians is that God sent his one and only Son to die and rise again for us and is alive today so that we can have a relationship with the living God by his grace alone. We can't earn it and we certainly don't deserve it. That is why so many of us sing about God's Amazing Grace! Clever people, and some not so clever people will always philosophise,debate and argue but when the grace of God hits you and his presence becomes a reality in your life the love of God gives you no choice but to pray for others so that the family of God can be complete. A great encouragement and challenge to us is to be involved by prayer for fellow Christians in Christian minority countries. They live with persecution in all forms yet they pray for their persecutors because they know that prayer in the hands of the believer has great power to change and sustain.
I think we all need more of the Truth revealed to us. Too often I think that even Christians tend to act as if simply knowing the right things to say is enough and we aren't all that transformed ourselves.
I have a dear friend from Iran who is Muslim who will be fasting during Ramadan. I asked him to pray, for everyday that he is fasting, for God to reveal Himself to him. I, in turn, will be fasting and praying for him.
Maybe as Christians we need to have our hearts broken by God so that we will be on our knees and faces for our friends who don't know Christ... Muslim or not.
I'd be just fine with that. I'm sure that there are many Muslims praying for my salvation. I appreciate their good intentions, and celebrate the religious freedom they have to do so. I also am firmly convinced that their prayers will not be effectatious, though they be directed to the one true God, for God desires that all men would know Christ as I do, accept for these chains. He wants intimacy, something outside Islam (accept among the Sufis), and something only fully realized in Christianity. He wants a recognition of sin and guilt, and the recognition that he has the power and love to remove it. His desire is for all Muslims to come to him.
Mr. Smith:
If, unbeknownst to you, there were a barrel of gold buried in your back yard, perhaps you would not be offended if I presented you with a map that pinpointed the exact location of your treasure. You could reject my map for many different reasons. Perhaps you already have gold enough; perhaps you think I’m playing you for a fool. However, if you have even the slightest sense that something is missing in your life, or the slightest inkling that I might be speaking the truth, you could choose to follow the map to prove for yourself whether I was telling the truth.
The Christian impulse to share the Gospel is like that. It does not stem from a sense of superiority over others (as you appear to think), but a sense of excitement and opportunity about letting people know that an unexpected treasure is as close as their own back yard. And by the way, the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the roadmap.
Mr. Smith,
Regarding you question as to how I'd feel as a Christian knowing that Muslims would be praying during Christmas and Easter for my conversion: I assume that they are--at least the devout ones. I've had Buddhists pray for me, befriend me, etc for conversion sake. I've had others want to persuade me. i don't find it offensive. My goal in praying during Ramadan is not to prove somebody "wrong" --- it's to show them the love and grace of God. What could possibly be wrong with that? Is there something which trumps that?
This is not about religion. This is about relationship. Christ died for our sins, while we were still sinners...He loves us the way we are, yet loves us enough NOT to leave us that way. As Romans 2 says, "it is the goodness of God that leads to repentance...". Let us be showing through our lives His goodness, His love and mercy. Prayer shows that. It is not about judgment. Romans 2 also forbids judgment...for the obvious reason that when we show judgment, the goodness of God cannot be seen. Please, let us show the love of Christ through this season. For the good of all, and for His glory!!
I found Christ through the friendship of a Muslim woman who drew me closer to God.
Many Muslims look at the overall state of those who call themselves Christians and yet are not disciples and see the decadence, blasphemy, and tolerance of sin and do pray for our salvation. They also pray that the tolerance of sin that they see will not will not influence them or their children.
There is beauty in the Muslim fear of God and quest for holiness, as there is in Judaism. May it also be said of Christians that we know the Lord enough to see the beauty of His holiness, and love Him enough to walk with Him and to be the light He said we would be.
Part of my prayer during this time is that the Lord will pour out His spirit on all flesh according to His Word - His spirit of truth. I agree with my brothers and sisters that we can all grow in the love of the Lord and the knowledge of Him. May we give glory to the One who is the way, the truth and the life.
To reply to Mr. Smith's question - Like others who have answered here, I have had Muslim friends pray for me and even regularly include me in their prayers. I have done the same for them, and they have appreciated it.
I think the bottom line for me is that those Muslim friends and acquaintances I speak of are sincere in wanting to know God. And they bring a willingness to speak of God and his works to everyday conversation in ways that most North Americans are very hesitant to do - devout Christians included.
In truth, i have found it much easier to talk about my beliefs - and the living out of them - with many Muslims than with my nominally "Christian" friends and neighbors.
it is my belief that God is calling us (those who have put faith in the saving work of Jesus Christ) to go past the barriers that sometimes seem so immovable, and to actively befriend people of other faiths, including Muslims. *Not* to try and convert them, but to offer them the love of Christ in relationships - as friends, as neighbors, as colleagues, as business associates, etc. (I could keep adding to this list, but I'm sure you can easily add to this list.
)
One of God's greatest blessings in my life: the friendship and kindness of many Muslim ESL students. They have welcomed me into their homes and their families' lives, showing a genuine hospitality, respect and more. Most Muslims come from cultures where relationships with neighbors and friends are quite a few degrees warmer than in the US, Canada and much of Western Europe. I have honestly felt more at home with many of my Arab Muslim friends than with people from my own culture/background! (That is also true of people from other parts of the world as well.)
If you meet people with honesty, an open heart and the desire to act in Christ's love, good things can - and often do! - happen. So, as others have done in their replies, I would like to gently challenge you to take some steps forward, in prayer and in other ways. God is sovereign, and he knows the hearts of those who truly seek to know him. Our "job" is to be available to those for whom he gave himself, is it not?
All the best to you!
"Noora"