The Challenges of Reaching the Buddhist People.
- A Cambodian Buddhist man fleeing during the war, ran into a Catholic church where he saw the figure of Jesus twisted on the cross. He was shocked to learn that Christians worship this man and asked “How could they even respect someone who obviously had such terrible karma?”
- An Evangelist was sharing with a Buddhist man about the blessing of ‘Eternal Life’ from John 3:16 which he immediately rejected saying “my goal is to end the cycle of life of suffering – and if you add to it eternal life it will only prolong my suffering and Samsara’
- Buddhists are not seeking eternal life – they already believe they exist in an endless cycle of death and rebirth. They desire liberation from endless life and suffering.
- Buddhists conceive of the world as a suffering-laden cycle of life, death, and rebirth, without beginning or end, known as ‘samsara’ and beings are driven from life to life in this system by ‘karma.’ It can only end when attaining ‘Nirvana’ – “blowing out” of the desires and the gaining of true insight into impermanence and non-self-reality.
- The proportion of Buddhists who have come to Christ is minute due to radically different worldviews make effectively communicating the gospel a difficult and painstaking task.
During May 15-16th the Buddhist people around the World celebrate their holy festival of Vesak Holiday which marks the birth, enlightenment, and the ultimate passing away of the Buddha.
We seek your intercession and prayer for the Buddhist world that God will open their eyes to see the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Pray for a Breakthrough in the Buddhist World.
Therefore, I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men,For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus,
1 Timothy 2:1,3-5
Being the 3rd largest world religious block after Islam and Hinduism, there are 470-920 million Buddhists (the higher figure if the Chinese, Japanese and other intermingled ethnic religions are included). Buddhism is the state religion of four nations in Asia, the majority in a further three and a significant minority in yet another nine. The majority of this total is actually a mixture of Buddhism with Chinese religions, Daoism, Confucianism and Shinto. The various religious systems are so intermingled that a clear differentiation is hard to make. If observers of all these religions are added together, the total virtually doubles the population of the Buddhist world.
83% of all these Buddhists will never have an opportunity to hear the Gospel from a Christian!
Over a half-billion Buddhists in more than 670 people groups worldwide need to know the transforming power of the gospel of Christ. Yet, nearly four in five of them are least-reached: They don’t have access to a church that preaches the gospel and worships in a culturally relevant way.
‘Change the Map’
15 Day Prayer Guide for the Buddhist World.
The Assemblies of God World Missions’ ‘Change the Map’ initiative which mobilizes prayer for the Buddhist World.
Download the ’15 Day Prayer Guide’ for the Buddhist World on their website.
Learn more about Reaching Buddhist and how to pray for them.
Join Now in Prayer with this 3 minutes Video by PrayerCast.
Prayer Points for the Buddhist World
Taken from ‘Pray for the Buddhist World’ by YWAM
- As you pray, keep in mind some of the ways Buddhist cultures understand spirituality.
- Buddhists do not believe in a creator God but do believe in various spirits and gods. They do venerate bodhisattvas or spiritual teachers who are worthy of respect.
- Folk Buddhists believe there are good and evil spirits, including spirits of dead ancestors, but all these spiritual beings are caught up in the endless cycle of birth, death, and rebirth.
- Buddhism is not about belief alone but about doing. Achieving merit through almsgiving to monks and donations to temples is an important, traditional Buddhist practice.
- Buddhists are not seeking eternal life – they already believe they exist in an endless cycle of death and rebirth. They desire liberation from endless life and suffering.
- Many Buddhists are more likely to be impacted by the stories of Jesus’ supernatural power and His free offer of salvation. Pray for miraculous healings and the revelation of grace (John 1:14).
- Pray that Christians would listen to the Buddhist people around them. Pray that they will learn from them and from the Holy Spirit how to love those around them, even when faced with rejection or persecution (John 14:15–21).
- Pray that God will help you to know how to pray for Christians who live among Buddhists, so they know how to share the good news (1 Cor 1:18–25).
- Pray for countries with large Buddhist populations: China, Thailand, Japan, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Cambodia, South Korea, India, Malaysia, Singapore, Laos, Nepal, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Bhutan, Macau and Mongolia. (For prayer points for each of these countries, see https://www.operationworld.org/countries-alphabetically.)
- Pray for a prayer movement for the Buddhist world.
For more Prayer Resources for the Buddhist World: Visit YWAM Pray for the Buddhist World
Sources: Operation World, Change the Map, YWAM Prayer, Oxfordbibliography.com, Christar.org, Ministrymagazine.org.
Pic Credits: Inquirer.com, changethemap.com