Praying Missionally
We all have a part to play in missions. Different churches approach missions differently, and so do individuals. Some are scared of missions, some only want to do short-term trips, some focus on local missions, and some feel called to do missions vocationally. But there are Biblical mission principles that apply to everyone.
The universal missional command we often hear is the Great Commission in Matthew 28. But I would like to highlight a different missional task in Luke 10.
In the beginning of this chapter, Jesus is sending out His disciples into villages ahead of Him. What follows is a list of instructions, but strangely “go” is not the first step. It’s prayer.
In verse 2, Jesus shares a reality: “The harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few.” It’s a metaphor for lostness - there are many without Christ and only few available to reach them with the gospel. And then follows His first instruction: “pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.”
We can all start with this step. It is a template for prayer in the same way as the Lord’s Prayer. Jesus is giving us a script! It’s basically a hack to know how to pray in accordance with God’s heart. He literally told us what we wants to hear from us. He wants us to pray for the harvest.
Many of us were taught to pray for ourselves or for the people we know. That’s good! We should definitely pray for ourselves and our loved ones. But here Jesus is telling us to pray for those we’ve never met, those we’ll never meet.
When I was in college, I was given the opportunity to see how God answers Luke 10:2 prayers. I set an alarm for 10:02am every day and joined others in praying over Luke 10:2 wherever I was. Sometimes those prayers were vague, simply praying that all nations would be reached with the gospel. Sometimes they were specific, naming gospel laborers I knew and their specific needs.
It was powerful! When you pray for lost people to have access to the good news, you pay more attention to who is being sent into which harvest. And you get to rejoice in a greater way when it happens because it’s an answer to your prayer!
But there is one effect of this habit that I didn’t see coming. The more I prayed for laborers in the harvest, the more I began to see the laborer in the mirror. It sparked in me a desire to be an answer to my own prayer, it’s what propelled me to eventually move to Boston.
Luke 10:2 acknowledges the force that drives this whole phenomenon. Jesus names who we are to pray to: the Lord of the harvest. Ultimately, the nations won’t be reached unless God goes before us; unless He prepares the way and equips laborers and sends them out. This prayer is a confession that He is the one in charge, and He will be the one to bring it to fruition. This prayer is powerful in missions because it appeals to the one with all of the power.
I’ll leave you with a question that convicts me often: if God answered every single one of your prayers right now, how would the kingdom of God look different? My prayer for you is that your prayers would be missional and expansive.