Lenten Devo #24—Plentiful Harvest, Few Laborers

"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)

There's only so much one person can do. And that's because the project of God is bigger than any one of us. We're not solo-warriors, but part of a great army. We're not individual craftsmen, but builders of a great city. We aren't gardeners in our little backyard plot, but farmers in a great vineyard. God means to remake the whole world. God means to form a whole people for himself, a people from every tribe nation and tongue. I don't speak Mandarin.

In response to the need we see around us, we can pray that God would raise up others. Specifically, we pray for others to labor alongside of us when the need before us is greater than we can handle. Or we pray for God to raise up others to labor in fields we know we're not equipped for.

So don't labor in vain, sweating yourself to death trying to do all the work there is to be done. Why do that when you could pray to the Lord to deliver you fellow workers. He is the Lord of the Harvest after all.

And if you apply this to the people you're praying for, the people you want to see come to faith, you will be praying that God would put other people in his or her life to speak the truth of the gospel, or that God would burden someone else with their salvation. And have faith that the Lord of the Harvest will indeed send more workers into the field. It is his fruit after all.

Who are you praying for today?