The Ones Who Pray Get Sent

On Sunday we watched Jesus look at a crowd that was harassed and helpless, "like sheep without a shepherd" (Matthew 9:36). It moved Him. Then He turned to the men standing next to Him and said, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest" (Matthew 9:37-38). And the very next thing He did was send them.

The ones who pray get sent. So what does that look like this week?

Look before you move. Jesus saw the crowd before He said a word about workers. This week, ask God to open your eyes on your ordinary routes: the break room, the ball field, the house you've driven past for ten years. Somebody near you is worn down and thrown down, with nobody walking beside them.

Ask Him to show you who.

Pray the prayer with your name in it. Every morning this week, pray Matthew 9:38 out loud, and add the line we prayed together on Sunday: "Here I am. Send me." Then pray for the person God showed you, by name. You can't beg God very long for someone to reach a person you love before you start to wonder whether you're the answer.

Finish the card. Pull out Sunday's card. Who is investing in you? Who are you investing in? If the first line is blank, ask a believer you respect to meet for coffee and read a passage together. If the second line is blank, invite one person to read the Gospel of Mark with you. A chapter a day gets you through it in sixteen days.

Keep it small. Edward Kimball walked right past the shoe store before he turned around and went in to talk with an eighteen-year-old named Dwight Moody about Jesus. Most discipling looks like that: one nervous conversation, then a lunch, then a Thursday morning with an open Bible.

Remember whose harvest it is. The field belongs to the Lord, and so does the outcome. He makes things grow. Your part is to show up in His field.

Look at who Jesus sent: fishermen, a tax collector, a man called the Zealot, and eleven men who would run the first night it got hard. He sent every one of them. He still sends ordinary people.