lenten journey, day 27 — a prayer for animists

So many of the unreached people groups in the world are animists who believe in the presence of a spirit realm that controls their fate. In animist traditions, these sprits—which indwell living and inanimate objects alike—are unpredictable and quick to punish.

Animists are typically enslaved by fear and consumed with anxiety about the acceptability of their animal sacrifices. They have never really known true hope, because they do not see any real improvement in health or living conditions, despite continual sacrifices to idols and repeated ceremonies to appease the spirits.

It grieves my heart that so many lost souls from every continent are in bondage to a belief system built on dread and worry, rather than love and mercy.

Forty years ago, on Uno Island off the coast of Guinea-Bissau in west Africa, the power of God’s sacrificial love triumphed over the animist spirit realm when an entire village put its faith in Christ. The village was unbearably poor, with humans and animals alike starving to death. Their only drinking water came from a dirty, slimy pool. Despite all the animal sacrifices performed by the witch doctor, nothing ever got better.

Then some Christians visited the village, bringing words of hope and acts of kindness. When the Christians saw all the sacrifices being made by the witch doctor, they told the village about the one sacrifice that changed everything and brought hope and healing to the world. Then, because talk of Jesus means little unless the practical love of Jesus is given as well, the Christians funded and dug a well. AND they translated the entire Bible into the local language. One by one the villagers gave their lives to Christ, but the chief clung to the old ways…until he saw what a difference the clean well water made. Then he burned all his idols and embraced the transcendent love of Christ, too. The villagers told others how Jesus had freed them from their fear, and now there are Christians on other Guinea-Bissau islands, too.

This story, and others like it from animist cultures around the world, shows that Jesus truly came to set the captives free, to break every chain, and to grant a yoke that is easy for all those who love him.

Gracious God, my heart breaks for my brothers and sisters around the world who rise each morning with fear in their hearts. If I am filled with sorrow by their bondage, how much more must you weep over their anxious lives? But thank you, Lord, that you have promised to draw every nation, tribe and tongue to yourself. There is rescue coming for the men, women and children who are bound to animist tradition! May you hasten the day of jubilee for these children of yours, calling many in the church to go and share your love in remote areas of the world. Oh God, make me more like you by giving me an unrelenting desire to see the church rise up and serve the lost. Oh God, give me a heart that would not even hesitate to say “yes” if it was called to be one of those servants. Yes, and amen.

Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs. — Jonah 2:8

I am the LORD; that is my name! I will not give my glory to another or my praise to idols. — Isaiah 42:8