We don’t think about persecution much. Why should we? It's not a reality to us.
For most of us, faith is convenient. Comfortable. Something we pick up on Sunday mornings and set back down when life gets busy. We have churches on every corner, sermons on YouTube, worship playlists on demand, shelves of Bibles collecting dust, and the freedom to speak the name of Jesus out loud without even a second thought. And because it’s always been this easy… we assume it always will be.
But here’s the uncomfortable truth: While we casually scroll past Scripture and skip church because we’re tired, millions of believers around the world are risking everything just to share a quick reading of a partial page of scripture and a quiet prayer.
This is no exaggeration, I mean literally everything.
Recent global reports on religious freedom estimate that about 1 in 7 Christians worldwide, roughly 14%, live under high levels of persecution or discrimination. That’s more than 380 million people.
That number doesn’t just mean “life is inconvenient,' It means threats, prison, and violence. It means losing your home, your job, your family, sometimes your life.
And most of us can’t even imagine what that feels like.
Because as Americans, freedom is baked into us. It’s the air we breathe. We’ve never had to count the cost of opening a Bible or bowing our heads in prayer.
But here’s the danger of that kind of freedom- it can make us indifferent. Comfort has a way of dulling urgency. Ease can make faith feel optional.
And slowly, without realizing it, we start taking for granted what others would literally die to have.
Meanwhile, this is what faith looks like for many of our brothers and sisters around the world:
In Nigeria, entire Christian villages are raided. Churches burned to the ground. Pastors kidnapped or killed. Families run for their lives with whatever they can carry. People go to church not knowing if they’ll make it home. Some don’t.
In North Korea, owning a Bible can land you in a labor camp. Not just you — your parents and your children too. Three generations punished. Imagine that. One prayer could cost your whole family their future.
In China, churches are monitored, crosses torn down, sermons watched by the government. Independent faith isn’t allowed. Believers meet quietly in apartments, watching the door, hoping no one reports them.
In Pakistan, a simple accusation of “blasphemy”- even a false one- can mean years in jail before a trial. Homes burned. Families hiding. Lives destroyed overnight.
In India, converts are beaten, ostracized, pushed out of their communities. Losing your faith might mean losing your family.
This isn’t history. This is now.
Right now, somewhere in the world, someone is praying in a whisper because they’re afraid of being heard.
Someone is burying their Bible so soldiers won’t find it.
Someone is choosing Jesus knowing it might cost them their life.
And here we are… debating whether we “feel like” going to church. We chose children's sports over spiritual encounters.
This should shake us! Why? Because biblically, we’re not separate from them.
We are all one body. One church. One family.
When they suffer, we’re supposed to feel it too.
So why don’t we?
Maybe we don’t know or didn't quite realize the reality.
Maybe we’ve never stopped to think about it.
Maybe comfort has numbed us.
But indifference shouldn’t be our response. Gratitude should be. Prayer should be. Action should be.
Their courage should light a fire under us. Why are we wasting what they would lay down their lives to have? This should unite us, empower us, and grow our passions.
If they can cling to Christ with everything on the line… how can we treat Him like an after-thought when nothing is stopping us, or even slowing us down?
My dear faith family... wake up!! What are you doing? What are you waiting for? What are you so nonchalant? Why are you not infuriated at what is happening to our family? Where is your righteous anger? Where is your fervent prayer? If the tables were reversed, would you not want others fighting for you diligently in educating others, reform, relief, prayer?
Use the freedom you’ve been given. Read your Bible. Pray like it matters. Show up. Stand firm. Support persecuted believers.
Live your faith out loud while you still can.
Because what we treat casually… others would give anything to have.
Please, please don’t waste this precious gift. Don't let their cries be in vain. Don't let their sacrifices be empty and meaningless, they are our family in Christ!
Don’t sleep through these moments; time is running out. It’s beyond time for sleeping Christians to wake up to the realities surrounding us. For God SO LOVED the world, He sacrificed His one and only Son... And the Son was obedient until death. These folks are living that life, honoring that holy gift.
What are you doing with it??
~ Devin
Devin Osborne
