Wednesday, June 19, 2024

Praying for Reapers (Matt. 9:38)

Here's something I noticed in my study of Matthew 9 this morning. 

See especially verse 38. One of the most unusual things about Jesus' teaching on prayer is the lack of any specific instruction to pray for the salvation of the lost. This obviously can't be because he lacked concern for the unregenerate. He insisted that he had come to seek and to save the lost. He wept over the multitudes. He grieved over evil and sin. But when it came to evangelism, he taught that evangelistic prayer is not so much praying for the salvation of individual men and women as praying for God to burden the hearts of his people to see the need of the harvest and allow God to thrust them forth as active reapers. I heartily agree with Lewis Chafer in his book True Evangelism when he says we should have a salvation prayer list of people we're praying that God would save. I have one myself. But it might be more in keeping with Jesus' emphasis to make the burden of our evangelistic prayer praying for the laborers rather than the harvest. 

Have a wonderful day!