A Chain Reaction of Prayer
Scripture: Luke 10:1-2
"The Lord now chose seventy-two other disciples and sent them ahead in pairs to all the towns and places he planned to visit. 2 These were his instructions to them: “The harvest is great, but the workers are few. So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask him to send more workers into his fields."
Observations:
It's unusual that as Jesus began commissioning His followers to go out into the world and spread His message, before He ever talked strategy with His team He first instructed them to pray. You'd think with such a huge task at hand He'd have given a lot more direction about how to develop new methods to reach people and how to become the largest group of disiciples in the area, but instead He simply asked them to pray. What's also strange is that He didn't direct them to pray for people to respond to their message, rather they prayed for God to send out more workers! No doubt those workers would receive the same commission and instruction to pray first and speak second. The more people prayed, the more workers would respond and go out sharing His message in the power of God, which would then lead to response. What a concept!
Application:
Perhaps the fundamental problem with Church is not that the world around us isn't responding to our message or our methods so much as it is the fact that prayer just isn't what it should be anymore. We plan and strategize and hope for results and then use prayer as a last resort when our failed methods aren't working like we want. Perhaps Jesus wants us to do what the first disciples did- "devote ourselves to the Word of God and to prayer" (Acts 6:4). No amount of human ingenuity will ever substitute for the power of God. Only God's power can awaken the "laborers" whom He also desires to reach. We can't expect the world around us to accept our message apart from time spent in God's presence. If we will simply devote ourselves to Jesus' call to pray for more workers to start praying for more workers and then share God's Word, just maybe we will see the same powerful results Jesus promised us (Luke 10:19)!
Prayer:
Father, teach us once again the significance of time spent in Your presence. We commit to a lifestyle of prayer. Awaken Your church and send out workers into the harvest of souls. Start a prayer revolution in us today. Amen.
Daily Bible Reading Plan
"The Lord now chose seventy-two other disciples and sent them ahead in pairs to all the towns and places he planned to visit. 2 These were his instructions to them: “The harvest is great, but the workers are few. So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask him to send more workers into his fields."
Observations:
It's unusual that as Jesus began commissioning His followers to go out into the world and spread His message, before He ever talked strategy with His team He first instructed them to pray. You'd think with such a huge task at hand He'd have given a lot more direction about how to develop new methods to reach people and how to become the largest group of disiciples in the area, but instead He simply asked them to pray. What's also strange is that He didn't direct them to pray for people to respond to their message, rather they prayed for God to send out more workers! No doubt those workers would receive the same commission and instruction to pray first and speak second. The more people prayed, the more workers would respond and go out sharing His message in the power of God, which would then lead to response. What a concept!
Application:
Perhaps the fundamental problem with Church is not that the world around us isn't responding to our message or our methods so much as it is the fact that prayer just isn't what it should be anymore. We plan and strategize and hope for results and then use prayer as a last resort when our failed methods aren't working like we want. Perhaps Jesus wants us to do what the first disciples did- "devote ourselves to the Word of God and to prayer" (Acts 6:4). No amount of human ingenuity will ever substitute for the power of God. Only God's power can awaken the "laborers" whom He also desires to reach. We can't expect the world around us to accept our message apart from time spent in God's presence. If we will simply devote ourselves to Jesus' call to pray for more workers to start praying for more workers and then share God's Word, just maybe we will see the same powerful results Jesus promised us (Luke 10:19)!
Prayer:
Father, teach us once again the significance of time spent in Your presence. We commit to a lifestyle of prayer. Awaken Your church and send out workers into the harvest of souls. Start a prayer revolution in us today. Amen.
Daily Bible Reading Plan
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