I often hear our Heavenly Father’s voice when I instruct my children. Sometimes I don’t *get it* right away but since it’s become a common theme I try to listen carefully to what I am saying. I consider, what do I need to do with the words as well?

Recently, I spoke with them about there being times we need to choose the difficult way; the times that we have to push in life, like a woman in labor pushes, to get to the life ready to be born. There’s IS a time to rest, breathe, “let go” and there’s a time to push through the fire.

I have a confession to make in regards to writing to you here: I am uncomfortable and I feel unworthy. What does a stay-at-home mom know about the suffering of our persecuted family? I’ve toiled with this in one shape or another since the beginning of our efforts. That was 17 years ago.

The struggle has taken on different forms over the years. I’ll never forget having my first born with me at one of the missions conferences and a man (whom I respected very much) asking me if I was “on the field YET”. I knew what he meant and I know how the question made me feel, as though the life in my hands, my child, was less worthy of the work of crossing the ocean.

This feeling wasn’t his fault, it was already deep in my fibre. It turned out that another mother, seasoned both in serving the persecuted, crossing the ocean and laying down her life on the home front every day heard these words to me as well. She said to me, “You can do no more important work Raynna. You’re on the front lines of the battle.”

I’ll never forget that. But I’ll also tell you the truth, it has taken me well over a decade for these words to sink into my fibre in a way that I have a renewed mind, a free mind, on the matter that moves me to not just hearing but acting to my full potential, or even trying. I believed her but I didn’t. I believed God, but I didn’t. I was afraid.

How great is God’s patience and gentle leading. All the while we have been taking hesitant steps and in His goodness He has taken our small loaves and made more. I am a mother and a creator who has not believed in my calling, in the faithfulness of God to work mightily in my smallness. I only saw little me. There’s a time to rest, breathe, “let go”, and there’s a time to push through the fire.

Thank you for being here, for reading, sharing and praying with us. Today we are praying for North Korea.

For the 14th consecutive year, North Korea ranks as the most hostile place to be a Christian … North Korea continues to be the most dangerous place in the world to be a Christian. The dictatorship government has an iron grip on its citizens. Any who deviate from the official beliefs and ideologies are considered enemies of the state. Thousands of Christians are incarcerated in prison camps, while many others face arrest, torture, or public execution. –Open Doors USA

Please pray with us, not because you or us are something amazing, not because we have some reason to be allowed to ask for freedom for captives living in a hell on earth; pray because God is something amazing, He is able. He takes these prayers from feet solidly planted on soil in the free West and moves in His might on the other side of the world.

“The English translation of Psalm 109:4 says, ‘I give myself to prayer.’ The Hebrew original contains only two words; ‘I—prayer’, not even ‘I am prayer’, which would establish a relationship between myself and prayer. This would overstate the meaning. I and prayer are identical, as Richard Wurmbrand and myself are identical.

Prayer should not only consist of words but also the spirit and the whole person. Augustine wrote, ‘The Spirit prays, even when the tongue is silent’, just as the heart and the kidneys function without speaking.” — from Richard Wurmbrand, The Oracles of God, author of Tortured for Christ and founder of The Voice of the Martyrs

So, what about you? Where are you planted that God wants to bloom life through you? or What seems impossible or unlikely so you haven’t given it your all? Have you diminished God’s work through your life because you felt small? or afraid? Have you taken your eyes off of Him as the Faithful One?

Raynna

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I am the co-founder of The Martyrs’ Cross ministry, alongside my husband Jay, the designer of this symbol, a prayer tool, that we WEAR around our necks to remember persecuted followers of Jesus, and their persecutors—around the world—in prayer and loving action. Some people call it jewelry, and that’s alright, but to us—it’s more. To us, it’s a WAY. The Martyrs’ Cross is a message we wear around our hearts and minds. Worn in over 26 nations, the message is clear: we will not forget.

By God’s grace and with a commitment to believing in His faithfulness: we will fight for awareness for all of us in the midst of a culture of distraction. When life gets crushing, we will remember how Jesus suffered and as 1 Peter 4:13 (MSG) says “be glad that you are in the very thick of what Christ experienced. This is a spiritual refining process, with glory just around the corner.”

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