The thing that gives me strength and gives me hope that God can change the people who are around me, is the transformation in my own life,” says Gamal. “I have faith and I pray that the One who changed me and keeps changing me and does miracles in my life can use me as a tool to build a Christ-centered society—or that God will do it in His own ways, even if it doesn’t involve me. The same way He shaped me, He can shape those around me and this will be the reason for transformation in our society. God has mysterious ways. I see the ways and the things that God taught me while I was standing here in a society that doesn’t know anything about this faith—absolutely nothing. He changed me, and taught me, and trained me—in spite of the mosque, and the Islamics I studied in school, in spite of the whole environment around me and the terrorism, and the violence, and the killing, and oppression. What strengthened me and solidified my faith from the beginning, is that what God did in me, He can do in others, either through me, or in His own way. This rests on God, who has an appointed time for everything.”
One day Gamal entered a small shop by the market and chatted with the shop owner as he made his purchases. Over time he had befriended this shop owner on his regular visits to the market. There was a TV in the shop that was always on. That day, as they were talking, Gamal took the remote control and casually flipped it to a Christian channel. The shop owner left it there and began to enjoy the programs he saw each day. He enjoyed them so much that he always kept his TV on that channel and refused to change it, even though some of his other customers complained about it.
Later, on another day when Gamal was in the market, he felt a heavy burden to pray for his new friend. The burden was so intense, that Gamal began to search for a place where he could pour out his heart audibly, right there in the market. He scanned the busy, crowded area. Finally, he went to the shop owner and asked him if he had a bathroom. The shop owner said yes and showed him to a small-unfinished stall with no roof. Gamal surveyed it doubtfully. His background told him that no bathroom was an appropriate place for prayer. According to the majority faith of his society, bathrooms were spiritually unclean places and inhabited by jinn—mischievous spirits that could do harm and contaminated the spiritual environment. Considering that even the nicest bathroom was unsuitable for prayer—this dirty, make-shift stall in the market appeared even less so. Maybe God wouldn’t hear his prayer in the bathroom. He wondered if God would be angry with him for praying in an unclean place. Finally, Gamal shrugged and entered the stall anyway—it would have to do. Left to himself with the door closed, he looked up at the blue sky above him and began to plead with his heavenly Father on his friend’s behalf, releasing the burden that had been pent up in his heart.
After committing his bathroom intercession to God, Gamal finished his business in the market and went home. When he arrived to the house he turned on his own TV that was tuned to a Christian channel as usual. A woman was preaching and she told the audience, “If you’re ever in a difficult situation and you’re surrounded by people and there’s nowhere to go – then just go find a bathroom and pour out your soul to God there.”
Gamal praised God as assurance filled his heart. He knew that his prayer from the bathroom had been heard and accepted, and that Christ had been there as always, guiding him and confirming him in his steps of faith.
“Prayer is the most important thing,” says Gamal. “It’s the most important thing that leads to me to Christ. The way I do everything else goes back to prayer, like learning, and meeting with other believers, and knowing my faith, and dealing with problems. The reason of my faith is prayer. Even if all those around me abandon me, prayer gives me strength. The reason for my faith, and the strength of my faith, and the reality of my faith is prayer—because God always answers. He solves my material problems, and the problems of violence, the problems of killing, and the problems of war and displacement. The prayers of the evening are answered in the morning, and this is because of the strength of God’s response and how much I love Him.”
Journey with us on the way :
Ask God to cultivate a heart of prayer in more members of our faith community.
Ask God to show us what a culture of prayer should look like in our faith community within our society.
Pray that God will do in others what he has done in us, as local believers-and that he will use Gamal and all the rest of us to transform our nation and build a Christ-centered society.
إذا كان لديكم مشاركة (شعرية، أدبية، تشجيعية، صلاة، الخ) وتودون مشاركتها معنا فبإمكانكم ارسالها إلى البريد التالي