When we pray, we can remember what Jesus taught about prayer
By Dean Collins
“When you pray…” Most who follow Jesus quickly recall the Lord’s Prayer when they hear or read these three words. If you have read Matthew’s Gospel, heard a pastor preach from the Sermon on the Mount, or attended a small group where Matthew 6 was the focus, then you are familiar with the Lord’s Prayer.
Our desire to focus on the familiar and comfortable passages of scripture sometimes blinds us to other passages also important to our discipleship. For instance, in Matthew 6 we hear Jesus use the phrase “When you pray” three times before he even gets to the familiar Lord’s Prayer.
When you pray, don’t be like the hypocrites who love to pray publicly on street corners and in synagogues where everyone can see them.
When you pray, go away by yourself, shut the door behind you, and pray to your Father in private.
When you pray, don’t babble on and on as the Gentiles do. They think their prayers are answered merely by repeating their words again and again.
A growing relationship
The teachings of Jesus and the example of Jesus suggest there is much we can learn about prayer. Effective prayers involve humility, time spent alone with God, and thoughtfulness. Jesus was not suggesting that we not pray together; he also gave instructions for praying in groups. Remember he also said when two or three are gathered together in his name he would be with them and provide what they are united in asking him.
As in good communication in marriage, in friendship, and in all relationships, our communication with God gets better and deeper through our willingness to focus our time, prepare our minds, and humbly listen and speak to God frequently. It is clear from the example of Jesus that prayer is a regular experience in a daily rhythm and not an occasional, urgent emergency. Prayer is a part of a healthy, growing relationship with God.
A need for workers
In Matthew and in all of the Gospels we learn what Jesus prayed for and what Jesus even told us to pray. Just a few pages after the Sermon on the Mount we discover another instruction about prayer from Jesus. Chapter 9 includes a busy season in the life of Jesus. We find him healing a paralyzed man, correcting the Pharisees, calling Matthew to become a follower, teaching about fasting, and continuing to heal the sick.
At the end of chapter 9, we learn that Jesus was traveling through the towns and villages both teaching and preaching the kingdom of God but also demonstrating it through his miracles of healing. It is here that Matthew gives us a picture of the compassion of Christ as he looks at the large crowds making their way to be close to him. In this moment Jesus gives us another instruction to pray.
What are we to pray when we see the crowds who are lost, confused, and in need of compassion? Do we pray for wisdom to know what to do? Do we offer prayers of healing? Do we pray for unity as Jesus would later do in his long prayer in John 17? Do we resist prayer and just jump into action? (Sadly, this is too frequently our response.)
Here’s what Jesus said to do. When he saw the crowds he said to his disciples, “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.”
Our tendency in moments where we see many in great need is usually different. We have vision-casting sessions and strategic planning sessions to figure out how to meet the needs. Of course, training is next so we are prepared. In the case of emergencies, we do triage similar to the emergency room in the hospital to make sure we get to the most urgent needs first and provide the appropriate help to those in need. But Jesus didn’t do any of this even as he saw large crowds with great needs. What he said to his disciples who were the most invested in his mission was simply to pray to the Lord to send more workers.
We know from the Gospel records that Jesus was certainly not inattentive to human need and suffering. He often stopped even in the middle of doing other things to help someone who suffered. I am pretty sure Jesus wants us to be involved in daily ministry to others. But in this one text we might have found a missing element to our discipleship. We are told always to pray that God would raise up more workers for the harvest.
A challenge for Christians
This passage sadly has been limited to pleas for prayers that God would raise up more pastors and missionaries. There is nothing wrong with that prayer. There is growing evidence in churches across the country that we have a shortage of pastors in nearly every denomination. We can and should pray that God would raise up another generation to do the important work of pastoring a church and of planting churches everywhere around the globe. But I think this instruction to pray for more workers also implies that all disciples become workers.
If we are called to be the hands and feet of Jesus and the world is in such great need (today as in the first century), then praying for God to raise up more hands and feet is central to the spread of the gospel. We need more pastors and missionaries, but we also need more disciples, more of us, to understand that we are to be pastors and missionaries wherever God has placed us in our jobs and in our communities.
How can we be sure Jesus meant to pray and to go? For one, in the very next chapter of Matthew, we see that Jesus sent the disciples out on a mission trip. He both told them and us to pray for more workers but also that we are a part of the working group that is called to serve in the harvest field.
Lord, forgive us for being so selective about the things you told us to do. We confess our tendency to simply pick what we want to do versus what you told us to do. Help us to pray more and more as you prayed. We commit not only to praying for our needs but also that you raise up more workers to share your gospel and to demonstrate your love and grace throughout the world. We want to be faithful where you planted us and also willing to be moved wherever you call us to serve. May your kingdom come on earth as it is in Heaven! In Jesus’ name, amen.
Your time with God’s Word
Matthew 6:5-13; 7:7-11; 9:35-38 NLT
Photo by adrianna geo on Unsplash
