Pray the Lord of the harvest
to send out laborers into His harvest. —Matthew 9:38
{CHAMBERS} “The key to the missionary’s difficult task is in the
hand of God, and that key is prayer, not work— that is, not work as the word is
commonly used today, which often results in the shifting of our focus away from
God. The key to the missionary’s difficult task is also not the key of common
sense, nor is it the key of medicine, civilization, education, or even
evangelization. The key is in following the Master’s orders— the key is prayer.
“Pray the Lord of the harvest….” In the natural realm, prayer is not practical
but absurd. We have to realize that prayer is foolish from the commonsense
point of view.[…] He [Jesus] owns the harvest that is produced through distress
and through conviction of sin. […] A Christian is called to be Jesus Christ’s
own, “a servant [who] is not greater than his master” (John 13:16), and someone
who does not dictate to Jesus Christ what he intends to do. Our Lord calls us
to no special work— He calls us to Himself. “Pray the Lord of the harvest,” and
He will engineer your circumstances to send you out as His laborer.”
{ELGIN} Prayer is one our weapons in spiritual warfare. In a battle, communication with the commander
is important. If you are not
communicating with the Father, you are operating on your own .. and that is not
a good place to be. It is so easy to
lose focus on your mission. To get diverted. If you are not in constant contact with your “commander”. We are in Texas right now to help with the recovery
from Hurricane Harvey. But is that our
mission? No. Our mission has never changed. Our primary mission is to lift Jesus up. To let people know that God has not forgotten
them and there is a Savior whose name is Jesus.
The primary method we do that is by serving others who are in need with
no hope of satisfying that need on their own.
It is all too easy to become so focused on the method that you lose
sight of the mission. There are many organizations,
faith based and secular responding the needs created by natural disasters. On the surface there is little
difference. But in the case of the
former, there is opportunity for an eternal solution to the needs of the
people, for the latter, the solution is only as good for a lifetime, maybe
less.
If the eternal destiny of the
people you help is not important. If that has somehow become secondary to the material
help you are providing, then you have lost focus on your mission. In Star Trek - speak, you would call it your Prime
Directive. In God-speak, you would call
it the Great Commission and Great Commandment.
In order to accomplish your mission you must be willing to lay your life
down (John 15:13, Romans 12:1-2, Matthew 6:24) and walk in obedience to the
Father’s will. Micah 6:8 is perhaps the
best synopsis of what that is … “What does the Lord require of you, oh
man? But to do justly, and to love
mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.”
That means to not go your own way, not do what you think is best or
reasonable, but to obey the Father. Just
like Jesus! Go figure! So what does this
mean for you? Chambers was addressing
young men and women who were pursuing a life of full-time vocational
ministry. I am addressing Christians who
are pursuing their new life in Christ.
Not necessarily one that means leaving their home behind to fulfill
their God-given purpose. But it could! The bottom line … every day you live should be encompassed by who you are in Christ and the fact that the world needs to hear
the Gospel and to see Jesus through the lives of the Saints. To see Jesus in you. A transformed life does
not happen because you do good things.
It happens because Christ in you. Think about it.
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