Have you ever been to a prayer meeting? I have been to a number of them in my days. There have been prayer requests from Aunt Martha’s bunion on her left big toe to serious requests for needed intervention. I will be honest, sometimes I have been attentive to joining others in prayer and other times my mind has been preoccupied with pulling lint off my sweater. (I am easily distracted.)
Not too long ago, I was awakened to a prayer request made by Jesus. It was a passage of Scripture that I had read many times. In fact, I had read it too many times but never really paid attention to what the words were saying to me. One day, I was reviewing a lesson that I had prepared for a group of highly energized elementary-aged children as well as their over-worked college camp counselors. That was when I was struck by these well-known, often-quoted verses that I probably have heard dozens of times while picking lint off my sweater:
Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”
(Matthew 9:35-38)
Did you catch that last sentence? Jesus is sharing His prayer request. In the middle of Martha’s bunion and the upcoming surgery list Jesus raises His hand in prayer meeting and shares, “Please ask God for workers.” What kind of workers? Those who see the needs around them and respond to them. That kind of worker.
Often, the only time I hear these verses is when there is a call for missionaries to a foreign field. I am not criticizing their use at those times. However, Jesus made this prayer request in His home nation, while looking at His own countrymen. I think it is easier for us to want someone to get the “call” for over there, far from here, in a land far, far away (like in another galaxy). Yet, we forget the call is for us today right where we are.
The morning I was studying the lesson in which these verses leapt of the page, was the day I was teaching a group of elementary children that they ARE missionaries. Not that one day they will be missionaries. But today, in their homes, in their schools, on the playgrounds, on the sport teams; they are missionaries. If you are a believer in Christ, then you are on mission with Christ. And Jesus is saying:
“Look around you. There are people hurting. They need people to reach out to them. Pray for more people to see themselves as the answer to My prayer request.”
My elementary missionaries were taught a cheer to remind them of the truth of their commission in Christ:
Who’s a missionary? I’m a missionary. You’re a missionary. We’re the missionaries of God.
I needed that cheer more than they did. I needed to be reminded that it is not about me going to a remote village in Africa to answer the prayer of Jesus. I can be worker right where I am at for the harvest is plentiful here. I know of those who are:
…harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.
But I know the Shepherd. And He has called this sheep to go to the other sheep who need to know the Shepherd. Dear sheep, Jesus has called you as well. Answer His prayer request. Be a worker in whatever city you are in. For every place on earth is the Lord’s harvest field.