"Continue to remember those in prison, as if you were together with them in prison, and those who are mistreated, as if you yourselves were suffering."
â Hebrews 13:3
Quick Answer
Pray for persecuted Christians the way the early church prayed for Peter, earnestly and specifically, asking God for boldness, protection, and gospel fruit rather than only safety (Acts 12:5; Acts 4:29). Remember them as Scripture instructs, as though sharing their chains, and let compassion for their suffering deepen your own faithfulness and gratitude (Hebrews 13:3).
Why This Prayer Matters
It is easy for prayer for the persecuted church to become a vague, occasional line tacked onto the end of a prayer list. Scripture calls for something far more deliberate. Hebrews instructs believers to remember those in prison as if you were together with them in prison, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering (Hebrews 13:3). This is not distant sympathy; it is imaginative, costly solidarity that shapes how earnestly you actually pray.
Paul asked churches directly for this kind of prayer on his own behalf, that he might be delivered from unbelievers and that his ministry would be acceptable to the saints (Romans 15:30-31). If the apostle Paul needed the church's specific intercession under persecution, believers facing similar dangers today need it no less.
Paul also asked believers to pray that he would be given the right words to fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, describing himself as an ambassador in chains (Ephesians 6:19-20). This shows that even a seasoned apostle depended on the prayers of ordinary believers he had never met to sustain his ministry under threat, a pattern that still holds true for persecuted believers today who depend on prayers offered on their behalf from believers around the world.
Pray for Boldness, Not Only Safety
When the early church prayed for Peter and John under threat, their request was strikingly not for the threats to disappear, but for boldness: enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness (Acts 4:29). It is right and natural to pray for the physical safety of persecuted believers, but Scripture models praying even more for their faithfulness and courage under pressure, since safety is not always granted while boldness is a promise God delights to answer.
When Peter was later imprisoned by Herod, the church prayed earnestly to God for him, and God sent an angel to free him from his chains (Acts 12:5-7). Both kinds of prayer, for boldness and for deliverance, are biblical and welcome; pray both without assuming you know which one God will grant.
Pray for Specific, Informed Needs
Vague prayers tend to fade quickly. Learning even basic details about persecuted believers, which countries face the harshest restrictions, which believers are imprisoned, which underground churches are meeting at great risk, turns abstract compassion into concrete intercession. Organizations that track and report on the persecuted church can help you pray with real names and real circumstances in mind rather than generic categories.
Pray specifically for pastors and leaders facing targeted pressure, for families of martyrs, for believers isolated from fellowship, for wisdom in when to flee and when to stay, and for the practical needs, food, shelter, legal aid, that often accompany persecution. Specific prayer tends to produce sustained prayer.
It can also help to pray in step with the church calendar many ministries use to highlight persecuted believers, or to adopt a specific country or region to pray for consistently over months or years. Consistency matters more than intensity; a small, faithful habit of naming real people and places before God will do more over time than a single burst of emotional concern that fades within a week.
Pray for Fruit, Not Just Relief
The book of Acts repeatedly shows persecution accompanied by gospel advance, as scattered believers preached the word wherever they went (Acts 8:4). It is right to pray that persecution would end, but it is also biblical to pray that God would use even ongoing persecution to draw people to himself, to strengthen the faith of believers under pressure, and to soften the hearts of persecutors, the way Saul the persecutor became Paul the apostle (Acts 9:1-6).
Praying this way does not minimize suffering; it trusts the same God who brought resurrection out of crucifixion to bring life out of what looks, from the ground, like nothing but loss.
Letting This Prayer Change You
Praying faithfully for the persecuted church tends to do something to the one praying. It cultivates gratitude for freedoms too easily taken for granted, humility about how comfortable faith can become, and a deeper unity with fellow believers in the one body of Christ, where if one part suffers, every part suffers with it (1 Corinthians 12:26). Consider setting a regular rhythm, a day of the week, a name on your mirror, to keep this prayer from slipping away unnoticed.
You may never meet the believers you pray for on this side of eternity, but Scripture assures you that such prayer is neither wasted nor unseen, offered before the throne of a God who hears every cry of his suffering people (Psalm 34:17).