A Prayer about Endurance in Suffering

I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. Revelation 1:9

Precious Jesus,

In your Word, and by your Spirit, 

you have given us everything we need 

to persevere in every seemingly new tribulation. 

Even today as we consider Christians 

suffering for their faith throughout the world, 

we are reminded that the apostle John, 

at eighty-four-years-old, 

was sent by the Romans to rot and die 

on the island of Patmos 

because of his “testimony of Jesus” (Revelation 1:9). 

He speaks to your disciples who suffer today

 as a “partner in the tribulation 

and the kingdom 

and the patient endurance that are in Jesus.” 

As one Bible scholar puts it, 

“John does not urge his fellow-Christians 

to seek a means of escape from this tribulation, 

for he understood only too well 

that discipleship means suffering.”* 

Jesus, in light of the suffering of the martyrs 

throughout the ages, 

we pray that you would make us bold 

to partner with those in deep suffering, 

to persevere with the patient endurance 

that is our legacy as your sisters and brothers.

In your enduring name we pray. Amen. 

Read Revelation 1.

*See Graeme Goldsworthy, The Gospel in Revelation, 181.