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In an effort to bring closure to this saga of articles about Turkey, I thought I would put together a few points about how people can pray for Turkey.

 

1. Pray for the discipleship process - that mature believers who have a heart for taking a lead role in church planting, evangelism, and taking initiative would be raised up quickly; that they would have a deep understanding of the Bible and be firmly grounded in its truth. Pray for boldness - there are many people who live under fear of persecution and ostracism and for that reason will not step out to lead. Pray especially that as believers are forming their plans and listening to God’s heart that they will be willing to go or stay wherever God takes them. There is a great need for believers in the east of Turkey, but no one wants to go there. Believers in the western part of the country say going to the east is like going to a different country. So pray for a change of heart.

 

2. Pray for trust. According to a worldwide study, only six percent of Turkish people trust their fellow Turks. This is a serious issue, leading to believers trusting the foreign workers in Turkey, but not their brothers and sisters, creating serious problems for unity and working together. Please pray for a spirit of unity to prevail against all that Satan succeeds in doing to divide the church and stir up dissension. Pray for forgiveness to come easier, for people to lay down their suspicions, and for unselfish faith.

 

3. Pray for the government. There are many factions, none of which are friendly to foreigners or Christianity. However, the one in power now is quite conservative and wouldn’t mind seeing the gap between government and Islam, installed by Ataturk, to be lessened extensively. Pray for the leaders in power, that they would make good and wise choices: choices that don’t discriminate against Turkish Christians. Pray for opening of doors for workers here, that the government would cooperate and be supportive of the foreign workers in Turkey; oftentimes, workers have issues with visas and work situations which can cause a lot of problems for them.

 

4. Pray for the economy. Turkey was hit by the economic crisis just as badly as the rest of Europe. The unemployment and lack of jobs was already a huge problem for Turkish people, and the financial difficulties have only aggravated the problem. Getting into university and achieving a substantial degree is terribly difficult for high school graduates, even those with high potential. An even greater problem is the lack of jobs after they graduate. Please pray for this economic situation to get better. This also creates huge problems for the church, since people posing as “seekers” try to get financial help or a job opportunity from the “rich” Christians. There is a fundamental misunderstanding that the church is not made of money, nor is it funded by America. This causes a lot of issues when people who seemed to be interested in the gospel “lose” their interest, because no financial aid is possible.

 

5. Finally, pray for God’s kingdom to come in Turkey. He has worked powerfully here, without any worker help at all, giving dreams to Turkish people and appearing to them in visions. Pray for more of this! Pray for an outpouring of his spirit on these people, that they would turn from Islam because they have found it empty. Pray for the chains of slavery to darkness to be broken, and for light to rule and reign. Pray for prayer warriors to rise up, lifting up the Turkish people before God daily. And finally, pray for the Turkish believers, that they would develop a fiery burden to reach their fellow countrymen, leading to a huge throng of Turkish people praising before the throne of God one day.

 

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