I don’t nap. I don’t sleep in late. Regardless of how tired I am, I wake up to my alarm the first time it goes off and get to work. I can only think of one time in my life when I was so tired I couldn’t keep my eyes open. Yet I found myself completely exhausted upon our arrival to Penang, Malaysia, unable to keep my eyes open as a missionary provided us with pertinent information about sharing the gospel in Malaysia. And it wasn’t just me. As I looked around at my squad mates, their eyes fluttering, you could see and feel that everyone was truly exhausted. I fell asleep around 8pm the night we arrived. The past two days I have taken extended naps, having to convince myself to get up for dinner and do something productive with my evenings.
It was as we were talking about these places of worship to idols that a light went off in my teammate Ashley’s head and she exclaimed “Of course we’re exhausted-think of how exhausting it would be to worship hundreds of Gods!”
How exhausting it would be to pray 5 times a day to a fictitious God.
To live in a country where you can convert to Islam from any other religion, but once you’re Muslim, there is no way to get out.
To be saved by a life of works and self-discipline rather than faith.
As we prayed on our rooftop, over the sound of ritualistic prayers being recited to Allah over a loudspeaker that blasts throughout the city, I felt the weight of the spiritual atmosphere melt away. I felt my exhaustion melt away.
I don’t serve hundreds of Gods, but rather the one true God.
I don’t pray 5 times a day to a fictitious God, but am in conversation with a real God, a good God, a relational God who hears my every thought, my every prayer, and knows my heart.
I know I am saved by my faith in Jesus Christ, not by the works I do or by my feeble attempts at obedience.
While I am free from the weight of this spiritual atmosphere, those living here are surrounded by it. We are in a place where sharing the gospel with a Muslim can literally lead to our arrest. We are in a place where once “Muslim” is put on a government ID, it is there forever. Regardless of heart change, once you are a Muslim your children must go to the Muslim schools, you are subject to the Muslim laws, and there is no converting.
I ask that you pray for opportunities for us to share the gospel and that hearts and lives would be changed this month. I invite you to pray for spiritual and physical protection for myself and my squad mates. This month the guys and girls are split up, and I am confident God has huge things in store for the lives of my team, my squad, and those we minister to. As always, your prayers are much needed and much appreciated.
