It’s rare for the Lord to directly tell us to pray! When He does, we know it’s really important for his mission, and we don’t want to miss out on being part of the Lord’s work.
Jesus told his followers these words before they went on a mission.
“The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”
(Matthew 9:37-38 ESV)
In the same context as the verse above, Jesus felt sorry for the crowd because they were tired, stressed, and lost. Two thousand years later, the situation for people around the world is similar, if not worse. Many people need help, and the world needs more workers because people are confused, worried, sad, and feel like they have no purpose. Many parts of the world still haven’t heard the Gospel, and in places where people have heard it, they are starting to lose faith. Even those who have accepted the Gospel still need guidance and support.
The world needs workers for the Lord’s harvest. We should start by doing what the Lord has commanded – praying for the workers. This should be our first step. It’s important to understand the power of prayer and not take it lightly. Prayer should not be ignored, underestimated, or seen as just a formality or last option. We should pray with faith for more workers to be sent.
That was a prayer we could see answered in a mighty way in the following story from the life of D.L. Moody. When the Lord answers prayer in His providence and power; it would be even hard for those of us to imagine the nitty-gritty of His handworks. It is not our matter to worry about how a particular person, church, community, or country will be ministered for the harvest of the Lord. Here is how Torrey recollects the story of a prayer for a laborer from the life of Moody.
Mr. Moody once told me this story long after the incident occurred. He went over to London in 1872, when his church lay in ashes, and while his new church in Chicago was building, not in order to preach, but to listen to others who, he thought, could preach better than he. One Sunday he was prevailed upon to preach. He got up that Sunday morning, and tried to preach. “I never had such a hard time preaching in my life. Everything was perfectly dead. I said to myself as I tried to preach, ‘What a fool I was to consent to preach. I came here to listen, and here I am preaching.’ As I drew towards the end of my sermon, I felt a sense of relief that I would be through in a few minutes. Then,” he said, “the awful thought came to me, ‘You have got to do it again tonight.’ I tried to get out of my night meeting, but I could not. I had promised to preach that night and I must keep my word.
“I went back to preach that night. The building was packed with people. There was a new atmosphere. The powers of an unseen world seemed to have fallen upon the audience. As I drew towards the close, I became emboldened to give out an invitation; so when I finished my sermon, I said, ‘If there is a man or woman here who will tonight accept Jesus Christ, please stand up.’ About five hundred people arose to their feet. I thought there must be some mistake, and I asked the people to be seated. Then I repeated the invitation in a stronger form and they all arose again. Again I asked them to be seated, still thinking there must be some mistake. ‘Now,’ I said, ‘if there are any of you who really mean to accept Christ tonight, please pass into the vestry and your pastor and I will meet you there.’ They commenced to stream in through the two doors. I said, ‘Mr. L., who are these people?’ He said, ‘Don’t know.’ ‘Are they your people, Mr. L.?’ ‘Some of them.’ ‘Are they Christians?’ ‘Not so far as I know.’
“We went into the vestry and I stood up and gave out a stronger invitation, and I asked all that really meant to accept Christ then and there to stand up. They all arose, about five hundred of them. I asked them to be seated again. I still thought there must be some mistake, so I said, ‘I am going to leave London tomorrow for Dublin, but your pastor will be here tomorrow night. If you really mean it come back and meet him.’ I went to Dublin. No sooner had I got there than I received a telegram from Mr. L. It was Tuesday morning and he said, ‘There was a bigger crowd out Monday night than Sunday. A great revival has broken out in my church. You must come back and help me.’”
Mr. Moody hurried back to London. There was a revival there that added hundreds of souls to the churches of North London. That was before he came here in 1873 for his great work—his introduction to England.
When he had finished the story I said to him, “Mr. Moody, somebody must have been praying.” “Oh,” he said, “didn’t I tell you that? That is the point of the story. There was a woman in the congregation that morning who had an invalid sister. She went home and said to her, ‘Who do you think preached for us this morning?’ and her sister guessed all the preachers who were in the habit of exchanging with Mr. L., and she said, ‘No, Mr. Moody from Chicago.’ When she said that, the invalid turned pale. She said, ‘What, Mr. Moody from Chicago? I read about him some time ago in an America paper, and I have been praying God to send him to London and to our church. If I had known he was going to preach this morning, I would have eaten no breakfast. I would have spent the whole time in prayer. Now, sister, go out of the room, lock the door, send me no dinner; no matter who comes, don’t let them see me. I am going to spend the whole afternoon and evening in prayer.’” And while Mr. Moody stood in the pulpit where all was coldness and death in the morning, that bedridden saint was holding him up in prayer before God. And God, who delights to answer prayer, poured out His Spirit. While the multitude saw Mr. Moody, God was looking at that bedridden saint.
Reuben Archer Torrey
It is up to us to pray for the laborers, and God can wonderfully take care of the harvest, as we saw above. It is the work of the Lord to harvest His way and time and according to His purposes. Our job begins with prayers, and that is the most important work in the Lord’s harvest. As we pray, God prepares our hearts to understand His will. Sometimes or many times, that means we are to be prepared to labor for the Lord. The great commission says about going to all the world to make disciples. It remains valid and is applied to this time and to all His disciples. Here is good news. I am not sure there might have been ever a time in the world like this where the nations of the world have been moving across the world in an easily accessible way. People are moving for education, work, for a better life, to escape persecution, and displacement due to war. Furthermore, technological advances and media positioning are other ways the dynamics of communicating with people have changed in a favorable way for the laborers of the Lord’s harvest to reach nations. Literally, people of all nations are at our fingertips; or near our doorsteps, as the following incident says.
One day, a lady from Eastern Europe came to the home of an elderly man from my church in Midland, Texas. Her car had broken down while she was on her way to pick up her kids from school, and she was upset and needed help. This man, who loves the Lord and has lived a faithful and godly life for many years, generously offered his car to the stranger without asking any questions. This shows how being prepared to see the Lord’s work in action can lead to wonderful opportunities in life. The woman’s family was then invited to our church and they happily accepted the invitation!
There are countless ways God needs laborers. And the harvest is plentiful. Jesus Christ is the Lord of the harvest. So the laborers need not be patronizing, manipulating, or feeling insecure. Many of you can tell hundreds of ways the Gospel is being proclaimed in varied situations of life and places. That is because the Almighty Lord who is the Lord of the harvest can lead a willing and praying servant of His to do His work in varied and wonderful ways. The Lord owns the message, those who receive the message, and the laborer. Our job is to pray for the laborers and the Lord shows the way how the laborers need to act. The needs of the sheep who are harassed, harmed, distressed, and helpless are different in each situation. He knows their hearts and can prepare the laborer to minister rightly when he or she submits to the Lordship of the Lord.
Reflection
What is your prayer for laborers looking like?
Are you missing real-time opportunities at your doorsteps and fingertips to participate in the harvest of the Lord?
How are you opening up and preparing yourselves to minister to the varied and difficult needs of people who you come across in your family, church, and community?
Meditate on the verse Matthew 9:37,38