Day Nineteen: What is needed?
Scripture: Matthew 9:35-38
Principle: We are to pray for more people to share the gospel.
While Jesus was on earth, He traveled about spreading the gospel from town to town with preaching and miracles. Once again we see His motivation. Today’s passage says Jesus saw the people and had compassion on them. Then he does something a little unexpected. He tells his disciples to pray. Not to preach more, not to perform more miracles or work harder. He tells them to pray. And what is it that they should pray for? Evangelists.
Evangelist is a word which evokes a picture in our minds. Someone like Billy Graham preaching in a stadium full of people or a guy in a suit and tie going door to door telling people about Jesus. That is not what Jesus meant. He called them laborers. A person who enthusiastically advocates for the gospel. It is not a paid position for just a few people to fill. It is every Christian’s position. The disciples didn’t quit sharing the gospel and pray that others would do it. It is a both / and proposition. Share, and pray for others to share.
Once again I want to give you some specific things to pray for other than just asking God to send more laborers. Yes, pray for more evangelists. Then pray they would be filled with the Holy Spirit. Sharing the gospel without the Holy Spirit is like a Formula 1 racing car without gas. It has the potential to create a tremendous amount of power but without gas, it won’t run. We need to be in tune with the Holy Spirit. He will guide us to who to share with, when to share and what to share.
Pray for boldness. This is a prayer the early church prays often and a prayer we need to start praying again.
Pray for them to have wisdom. Wisdom to see the truth and speak the truth at the appropriate time.
Pray that they would have compassion. Jesus preached and healed out of compassion. Evangelists need a large dose of compassion.
Pray they would have zeal. So many of us are content or consumed with the things of this world that there is no zeal, no passion, no fervor to see God’s will done. Puritan pastor Phillip Doddridge prayed,
“Give me instead a holy and ardent yet prudent and well-governed zeal to see others convicted and turn to you.”35
Application: Pray that God would fill you with His Spirit and equip you with compassion, wisdom, zeal and boldness. Then pray the same thing for our church and the churches in our state and across our country.
35 Philip Doddridge, “I Need Your Protection,” in Piercing Heaven: Prayers of the Puritans, ed. Robert Elmer (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2019), 84.