I have been praying for the Christians in Egypt ever since the unrest began. I have been praying that they will be a light and graceful testimony to their neighbors and to the watching world. The headlines today indicate that they are protesting for their rights and that they have engaged in violence. Of course I don't actually know this to be the case because I'm not in Egypt and I've not done any research on current events. But if this is true - then an opportunity for peaceful and graceful witness has been missed; perhaps it can be recovered?
I pray that there will be a peaceful and suffering nucleus that will bear testimony to both "Christians" and non-Christians. Whether Lebanon, or Palestine, or Egypt, the Balkans, or Northern Ireland...or the United States and Canada - to be born into a "Christian" family does not make one a Christian. When civil restraint is cast off what do we have?
A few months ago I wrote about "be not overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good." That is a command to those who profess to be followers of Jesus Christ. Our words, our actions, the meditations of our hearts; all of these reflect either obedience or disobedience to the Cross of Christ and the Christ of the Cross. I don't think those of us in North America are immune from the insidiousness of sin and the temptation to use the elements of the natural in response to evil; whether those elements are vitriolic rhetoric or violent actions - are we learning to guard our hearts? Are we learning to fear our hearts when they are not ruled by the Prince of Peace? Are we in the school of discipleship of Christ so that as our society sprials down into the whirlpool of evil that those around us will see in us the Prince of Peace?
Let us pray for brothers and sisters in Egypt; that they will not be overcome by evil but that they will overcome evil by good.
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