I will admit that I am not the prayer warrior that I wish I was. I’m not really great at praying consistently, persistently, and with a great deal of faith. And yet all of these things are descriptions that the Bible uses to describe the way followers of Jesus should approach prayer. In Luke 18, Jesus describes the need for persistent prayer with a story about a widow and an unrighteous judge. In Mark 11, he says that whatever the disciples ask for in prayer, they will receive if they believe. In 1 Thessalonians 5, Paul says to pray continuously (or without ceasing). I’m not great at any of these…yet. But throughout the last several weeks, I have felt a burden as a missions leader to recognize my own dependence on God to accomplish any task that he has given me to do. Honestly, our entire ability to witness people trust in Jesus and live their lives for him—it is all dependent on Him.
I think when we have resources, and we have a game plan, we inevitably begin to trust in those things to accomplish the God-sized mission that he gave to us: “make disciples of ALL nations, baptizing them, and teaching them ALL that Jesus commanded.”
Over the last couple weeks, I have had the privilege of doing weekly prayer meetings with the LifeWay mission team leaders over Zoom. I have had the privilege of praying with LifeWay missions partners in Asia over Zoom. I have prayed with people from LifeWay over the phone, and I have prayed that God would be at work in me and in LifeWay Church to show us how we can be his body in this current situation. I have been renewed and encouraged that there is power in releasing the need to solve or even to act at times. He loves to act in us and on our behalf. And I’m beginning to love praying.
If you want to pray with us for our missions partners, find the list on the bottom of the open prayer emails. [Would you like to join the open prayer chain and receive the prayer emails? Click here.]
The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. — Luke 10:2