Influence Your World

Influence Your World

The harvest is great, but the workers are few. So pray to the LORD who is in charge of the harvest; ask him to send more workers into his fields. Matthew 9:37-38

AS JESUS TRAVELED THROUGHOUT THE VILLAGES and towns of Galilee, he had compassion on the crowds and ministered to them. Like sheep without a shepherd, they flocked to him for healing, deliverance, words of wisdom, and a touch from God. At one point, Jesus turned to his disciples and told them the harvest was plentiful. But he didn’t ask for more opportunities or more efficient ministry. He told them to pray for more workers to be sent into the harvest.

Was he appealing for a larger group of disciples to follow him as he went into the fields? Perhaps. In the next passage and another, he sends the twelve and then the seventy followers out on their own ministry trips as the beginnings of something more. But his instruction to pray for laborers stands as a timeless appeal for believers not just to go but to pray for more goers—to be engaged in his mission in all places and at all times, even on our knees. If the harvest was ripe then, we can trust that it is still ripe today. And the only way to deal with a vast harvest is to recruit more workers to handle it. Great crops are labor-intensive.

This then becomes a major focus of our prayers. When people hear of prayer meetings or groups, they often imagine faint results and perhaps nothing more productive than nice wishes. But prayer is a ministry in itself, a key component of advancing God’s Kingdom in this world. It’s a weighty calling.

Ask God to send not only more workers but diverse, sensitive, knowledgeable, creative, winsome, Spirit-empowered workers. Be ready to become an answer to your own prayer; God often involves us in his responses one way or another—in this case, by supporting, going, and/or getting involved where we are. Even if you are limited in your opportunities, you can have a powerful, lasting influence on people, cultures, nations, institutions, families, churches, and much more. Touching the world through prayer is a calling you can fulfill anytime and anywhere.

You can influence more people for God and have a greater role in advancing Christ’s cause by prayer than in any other way.