“The Lord foils the plans of the nations; he thwarts the purposes of the peoples. But the plans of the Lord stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations.” (Psalm 33:10-11)

Last week three Christians in Iran were fined and assigned 5-year prison sentences for “propaganda against the Islamic regime.” International Christian Concern reports that Amin Khaki, Milad Goudarzi, and Alireza Nourmohammadi — all converts from Muslim backgrounds — were denied a lawyer and judged after a court hearing that lasted less than an hour. They were detained and charged under a relatively recent addition to the country’s penal code that makes clear that “any deviant education or propaganda that contradicts or interferes with the sacred Islamic shari’a, will be severely punished.”

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For Iranian Christians and their brothers and sisters in Christ around the world, this is a concerning development in the early days of Iran’s new president, Ebrahim Raisi.

Concerning — but sadly not surprising.

Just last week, ICC stated, “Ebrahim Raisi’s election with a hardline agenda will likely cause increased persecution of Christians and the Church who are viewed as enemies of the state and a threat to national security.”

Open Doors USA ranks Iran #8 on its list of top Christian persecutors. It estimates that roughly 800,000 Christians live there (some observers say more), and they face extreme danger from the state. Open Doors notes, “The Iranian government sees the conversion of Muslims to Christianity as an attempt by Western countries to undermine the Islamic rule of Iran.”

Clearly, Iranian Christians need our prayer support. And that need for cover could become even more urgent as Iran stirs dangerous waters abroad.

Earlier this week President Biden ordered airstrikes against Iran-backed militias in Syria and Iraq in response to drone attacks on U.S. forces in the region. Meanwhile, there is evidence of Iranian influence in other conflicts, including the shocking and deadly battle between Israel and Hamas in May.

“The Israel-Hamas conflict last month was a reminder that nearly everything in the Middle East is connected — and whether we’re talking about Hamas rockets, the ongoing calamity in Yemen, or the Iran nuclear deal, Tehran’s destabilizing role in the region is the common factor,” wrote former Ambassador James Jeffrey and Dennis Ross, a former Obama official, in The Atlantic this week.

If another observer is right, that destabilizing influence could grow even larger on the world stage. The Heritage Foundation’s Peter Brookes this week took note of a seemingly less threatening effort by the Iranian government to launch a satellite into orbit — an exercise that failed. However, Brookes is concerned. He wonders if the supposed failure could actually be a front for testing rockets.

“The dirty little secret is that the missile technology used by a space launch vehicle to put a payload into orbit is essentially the same technology used by an intercontinental ballistic missile to hurl a nuclear warhead across the planet,” he said.

This is bad news for all people who value peace and freedom, and America’s leaders need prayers for wisdom in confronting Iran in the Middle East and around the world.

But I also wonder how such an emboldened hardline regime could affect Christians and other vulnerable populations inside Iranian territory. Will high stakes contests abroad increase pressure and persecution against them?

Our brothers and sisters in Christ living under that tyranny need our prayers, too. Will you lift them up today?

How will you pray for Christians in Iran? Let us know in the comments below!

(Aaron Mercer is a Contributing Writer with two decades of experience in Washington, D.C.’s public policy arena. Photo from Sina Drakhshani/UnSplash)