Good day
Matthew 9:35-38 NKJ
Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the labourers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into His harvest.”
Verse 38 in the NLT reads as follows, so pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask him to send more workers into his fields.”
In the above passage we find that when Jesus saw that the multitudes were weary and scattered, He said to pray that the Lord would send out labourers/workers into His harvest. I had to reflect on this and ask myself, for all the things that I mention when I pray, whether I'm praying for myself, family, friends, communities, city, country, etc. how often do I specifically mention, "Lord, I thank You for sending labourers out into Your harvest!" ... and the answer was, not often enough.
One of the other things that stands out is that when He saw that situation, He didn't say we need to build more churches, attend more Bible courses or that we give more financially, etc.... Now should we do all of the things just mentioned, yes - Would it assist with bringing in the harvest, yes ... But what stands out is that Jesus said to pray, so the question is, apart from all those other things, are we also praying?
The encouragement that we can draw from this is knowing that Jesus would never suggest we pray for something unless He knew God was prepared to answer that prayer and watch over His word to perform it! This is the confidence we can have when doing something that Jesus asks us to do - It's guaranteed to work!
Therefore consider the possibility that the person whom God worked through to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with you, who may have invited you to church, maybe even me sending you these messages - may all have been as a result of someone having prayed that prayer for you.
So let's be encouraged to pray as Jesus said we should, that God would send out labourers into His harvest, and trust that He is working behind the scenes and orchestrating things in such a way that people are been sent out, led by the Holy Spirit, fulfilling His assignments for their lives and seeing others coming to know Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Saviour, all because when we saw the multitudes weary and scattered, we chose to pray!
Amen