Praying for Laborers
Summer 2021
“ Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few;
Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth laborers into his harvest” (Matthew 9:37-38)
Leonhard Keyser was a friend and disciple of Reformer Martin Luther. He was condemned to be executed and as he drew near the stake, he looked at the large crowd gathered and cried out, “Behold the harvest—O Master send forth thy labourers.” These were his last words. The problem here, and also in the Lord’s day, was a shortage of laborers. This is still one of the overwhelming problems in our church today. There is much preaching and evangelizing to be done, but the number to do the work is few. In this great need for laborers, the Lord encourages His people to pray to the Lord of the Harvest, God Himself, in whose hand “is the soul of every living thing and the breath of all mankind.”
THE HARVEST IS PLENTIFUL
The Lord conveys to His disciples the present state of men's souls by using the analogy of a crop, rich and ready to be harvested: “the harvest truly is plentiful.” He sees the multitude before Him as a crop ready to be harvested. On another occasion, He uses a similar analogy when He tells His disciples, “Lift up your eyes and look on the fields for they are white already to harvest” (John 4:35). In the gospel harvest, it pleases the Lord through the preaching of the Word to gather in a harvest of souls.
LABORERS ARE FEW
Ministers of God are laborers under God, sent of the Lord to preach the gospel. The Lord chooses and employs men, as He did the disciples, with power and authority to minister in His name. Only the Lord can send out laborers who are willing in the day of His power. These are the laborers the church needs today. Every subsequent generation has felt the need for more men called of God to proclaim the riches of Christ; however, the church itself cannot equip or qualify men and send them forth for this task. Our desire is that God will call and empower men to fill our pulpits and fill the great need in our mission fields.
PRAY YE THEREFORE
The Lord’s burden in Matthew 9 was that the people being led astray by the current spiritual leaders would hear His words and be brought to saving truth. He saw them as sheep without a shepherd. As the disciples gathered around Him, the Lord Jesus instructed them to simply pray. Much prayer of the early church was offered up to God also in regard to Saul of Tarsus, that God would stop the trail of persecution against the church. God’s response was not only the miraculous conversion of Saul, but the miraculous calling of Paul as “a chosen vessel unto me to bear my name amongst the Gentiles."
When a church begins to pray seriously, all things are possible with God. God sends forth laborers in response to the prayers of His people. Prayer is something every Christian can do. Not all will be called of God to be laborers in far off fields, but we can all commit ourselves to earnestly "labor" in prayer to the Lord of the Harvest.
Today, the urgency and need is much the same as it was in the days of Lord Jesus Christ, and in the days of Leonhard Keyser. If we faithfully pray to the Lord, we will have a caring and compassionate heart like the Lord Jesus. Many of our vacant pulpits and needs in the mission fields have been filled as a result of the prayers of God’s people. Prayer is the God-appointed means whereby the hearts of laborers respond to the call of God, ensuring the survival of the Lord’s work in our denomination. The Lord waits to hear our prayers. I encourage you all to seek the Lord and in doing so, your own souls will be blessed and refreshed knowing that God has heard your prayers.
Anthony D’addurno | Minister of Barrie FPC, Barrie, ON