1 Be merciful to me, my God,
for my enemies are in hot pursuit;
all day long they press their attack.
2 My adversaries pursue me all day long;
in their pride many are attacking me. Psalm 56:1-2

By now many reading this know that I spend a fair amount of time talking about the Persecuted Church. In the West we don’t quite understand why there is even a persecuted church. Because we’ve lived in freedom for so long we don’t get how others could not live in such freedom. But, sadly, dozens of countries continue persecute Christian believers.

This is not 1970 where the Soviet Bloc nations regularly persecuted Christians. This is 2014 where churches are burned down, pastors are imprisoned, villages are plundered, women are taken as sex slaves or worse, and men are outright murdered. It’s not something we care to think about often but we need to. Why? Because it could happen to us if political forces take a few steps in that direction. Don’t think it can’t happen in the West.

Here’s another way to look at this: do you think Satan cares about geographical boundaries? Of course he doesn’t. Then believe me when I say he is doing his utmost to take away your freedoms. I don’t write that to alarm you but to point to the reality of the spiritual warfare we are in.

We should, as Elisha did for his servant, pray:

“Open his eyes, LORD, so that he may see.” Then the LORD opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. 2 Kings 6:17

The battle was being waged all around the servant much like the battle is around us. And like David states about his enemies in this verse, “they’re pursuing me all day long.”

Ask the Lord to give us eyes to see a glimpse of these battles.