Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” Matthew 9:38 NIV
Living in the southern states in America, I am very familiar with an abundance of churches. My childhood consisted of regular church gatherings on Sunday morning, night and Wednesday evenings. As a teen, we added Monday night youth bible studies. So you may begin to understand how astounded I feel about my recent visit to Cambodia. There is such a stark contrast in the number of believers, less the 1/2 of 1 percent. Out of 1000 people, only 5 profess to be followers, while 995 are not, most likely because they have never heard the name of Jesus. So few.
Because of such a great harvest, Jesus tells his disciples that they should pray to God for more workers. Actually the greek implies that we implore God to “thrust out” workers into the harvest. The need is greater than there are people doing it. How many people do you know who are regularly sharing the good news of Jesus with others? Remember the Harvest of lost people is all around us as well as in the 10/40 window.
There is a direct link between the subject of our prayers and the focus of our desires or passions. Our words reflect what is on our heart. Sometimes we are overwhelmed with life and we “throw up” our concerns to God. Life is tough. Survival for our own peace consumes most of our prayer time.
Do Something Different – Be intentional in your prayers. Start praying over a matter and allow your heart to be aligned with that need. You may have cared very little about “the issue” before praying, but during your time of intercession God can place the appropriate burden for the need. (Salvation of lost + Your Praying = a Passion for the Lost). Your passion can and will follow your prayers. Since your life follows your words, choose well what you are saying.
For most of us…we don’t spend very much time praying for the salvation of the lost. We may know a few missionaries by name, but we know even less about the cultural barriers for the people in that country to receive the gospel. Geography was not just a class in school…there are individuals in those nations, tribes and tongues for whom they have never heard of Jesus.
Jesus knows our tendency to be so consumed with our own affairs so that we have little time to contemplate the needs of others. His remedy was to encourage us to pray.
We will address some specifics in praying for the lost in future blogs, but for today, take a few moments and ask God to send workers to the lost people that you know by name. If they are on your heart, they are also on Jesus heart who is interceding with you on their behalf.
Blessings Love y’all