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 Bible scholar Graeme Goldsworthy 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.
