This is day 25 of 32. Throughout April, we will be posting daily. We invite you to learn about Chinese Muslims and pray with us for God’s glory to be made known among them. If you would like to read other posts in this series, you can find them here or download the prayer guide here.

Abraham is a Muslim-background believer (MBB) from an average Muslim family in China. He allowed us to interview him recently and share his story. He desires for people to understand more about Chinese Muslims and to pray intentionally and passionately for them. His real name and location are removed to protect his identity. This is part 3 of 7.

Share with us your journey of coming to know Jesus.

young men sitting to pray smallerSeveral friends came to talk to me about Jesus several times during my first semester in college, but I didn’t understand what they were talking about. Later, I had some other friends and they taught me little by little, but I rejected so much. I still believed there was no relationship between Jesus and Isa, but to show respect I had to listen to them. I did what they told me. I studied with them for the sake of friends but I had no desire to believe in Jesus. But through two years, their lives and their attitudes and the love that came out of their hearts told me much more strongly what they believed than what they said verbally. I wanted to learn what was going on in their hearts. I wanted to know what made them different.

Everything was really totally different. In some situations you are desperate but you can still have hope. They gave me this encouragement. Some things you can never get in this environment. For example, how they really care about your personal life and your own faith and how you feel at this point. They wanted to understand and help me with my needs. Few people really go into your heart and look at what is inside.

I read quite a few testimonies from Muslim-background believers in the Arabic-speaking world and Indonesia and Africa. These stories were from all over the world. I believed the stories. God was using dreams and visions to show who He was to Muslims. One thing that is true is that God will appear to you in a way that is closest to you.

In our world we emphasize dreams. If you have a special dream, we will interpret it. One famous story from the Qur’an is Joseph’s story. It is similar to the Bible but different. We are taught that when you have a special dream God is speaking to you.

One event happened in my life that pushed me to believe and listen more. My body used to suffer terribly. From the moment that I can remember, I remember suffering at least once a year. We saw many doctors and tried many traditional methods to try and heal it but nothing ever worked.

About 7-8 years ago when I was in college, my friends asked me if they could pray for my body in the name of Jesus so that I could be healed. I thought why not? I have tried so many methods so why not let them? The next day, I didn’t think anything of it. Later that year nothing happened. It never came to my mind that they had prayed for me. When a whole year had passed and I still did not have pain, I knew that something was wrong because nothing had happened. One day I shared my feelings with my friend who prayed for me. I said something is wrong with my body. My friend said, “Do you remember last year we prayed for you about this time.” I still couldn’t give my heart to Jesus even though this happened.

Later on something happened, and I thought I was going to die. My friends prayed for me, and one family invited me to stay with them during this difficult time. During that month I thought about a lot of things.

manThen, a friend shared a Bible with a classmate and myself. I told my classmate that the Bible was cursed. After two days she returned it to me. It was all in Chinese. I didn’t return it to my friend. I took it to the dorm, and I asked my friend how to read it. She said read Genesis first, then Psalm, then the Gospels. As I read I saw that it was not a cursed book. When I read the beginning of Genesis, I realized it was very similar to the Qur’an. I read Genesis, Psalm, Matthew, part of Mark and John. I felt like the authors were copying each other. Copying homework is so common in China, and I felt they were copying each other. I returned it. By the way, when I would read, I was very careful because I did not want anyone to know. So, I read by flashlight or on the weekend when no one was around.

A few months later, I wanted to learn more. So when a friend came to talk, I was not rejecting it as much as before. I knew that if I read the Bible and talked about Jesus that God would punish me and send me to hell. But there was a desire in my heart to learn more. I was afraid others would find out and call me an infidel. I heard people say, “betrayer.”

One day I was lying in bed at night, and I was praying, “God I am tired. If I had never listened to your name in another form or never read the Bible I would not be struggling. Now I am tired. Are you Allah or God? Are you Jesus or Isa? God, will you teach me and show me? I don’t care what name people call you. I want to know the truth.”

Nothing magical happened afterwards. I decided from that moment that I would read the Bible very objectively. I would not criticize it a lot. But, I did not have a Bible for myself. I asked some friends if they could give me a Bible. These friends were very faithful servants of God. Through their lives they told me their feelings. Through their behavior and actions they taught me. They never asked me to read the Bible and through friendship I wanted to read by myself. They were very glad to hear that. After I received the Bible, I read the book every day, and I had a peace of mind.

It was my first time after so many religious practices to focus on God’s character and who God is. I never felt that way in my old days before that. When there was an impressive saying about God about how He loves us and cares for us and how faithful He is and how holy He is, I wanted to memorize those Bible verses.

Prayer Requests:

  • Praise God that university students and others are boldly proclaiming the Gospel to Chinese Muslim students like Abraham. Pray that more and more followers of Jesus will boldly proclaim the Gospel to Chinese Muslims on college campuses across China.
  • For many Muslims, coming to Jesus is a process or journey that takes time and study. Pray that followers of Jesus will faithfully and patiently proclaim the Gospel to their Muslim friends and live out the Gospel as well.

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