How to Answer Jesus’ Prayer + “Workers and Weepers”
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Workers and Weepers.
Last Sunday, I was driving and praying for Michael and Dakota and thanking God for “sending” them. As I was thinking/praying/musing, Matthew 9:37-38 came into my mind: “Then said He unto His disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few; pray ye, therefore, the LORD of the harvest, that He will send forth laborers into the harvest.” All week this verse and the fact that God is looking for, longing for LABORERS; WORKERS, has been on my heart.
On Monday evening, this little line of thought about workers was front and center, when suddenly, Psalm 26:5-6 converged with it. (By the way, I love when God does this with His Word! He will bring verses together in your mind. They start to come together like puzzle pieces. It is so amazing!) “They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again, with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.”
…WORKERS and WEEPERS.
The first half of this “thought” was WORK. Jesus specifically told His disciples to pray for workers. They were not required to go hunt workers down, but simply to pray that God would send more laborers into the harvest field…that the work force would match the available harvest. And…He said “LABORERS.” I thought there might be some deeper revelation in this, so I looked up the word in Hebrew. No deep revelation, just “work.” “A workman …a laborer…one who works for hire…one who DOES…a worker… a perpetrator.” Jesus didn’t ask them to pray for more preachers. (Though preaching IS work: “Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially those who LABOR in the Word and doctrine.”) He didn’t ask them to pray for more religious leaders, or celebrities, or people, of any specific “position,” just workers…people who are willing to roll up their sleeves and make the harvest their primary focus.
The harvest IS work. Revival is work. Years ago, Pastor said, “We go from glory to glory, and in between is a lot of hard work.” It’s true, and that’s why Jesus gave instructions for prayer for workers.
In Jesus’ day, before the automation and technology we have today, the work of a laborer was intense. It required being on your feet all day, more than likely, carrying something to put your harvest in. It involved the hot sun. It involved the field, which I learned one summer picking corn, is anything but pleasant. If it was wheat harvest, it involved bending and swinging a sickle. It was work. Labor intensive…back-breaking work.
So is the work of the harvest of souls. Jesus said the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.” Many people will say they want to see a great harvest of souls, but few will pick up a sickle. I love the words of Thomas Edison: “Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.” The opportunity to re-route souls to heaven looks like work most often. It is:
Scrubbing bathrooms after a Sunday service
Opening your home and preparing a meal in a display of Christ’s love through hospitality
Rearranging your schedule to prepare for and teach the Word of God to others
Handing over a Kleenex as you listen to a broken heart that Jesus is going to restore
Teaching Sunday School to an audience that may or may not be paying attention
Mopping floors after “fellowship nights,” driving a van to youth events or picking up those with no transportation so they can be in the house of God
Looking for “divine intersections” throughout your day and being willing to stop “your agenda” to connect with the harvest
Making calls, visiting the sick, sending notes, shoveling snow, baking cookies, being at choir practice or children’s ministry practice or music practice, clearing tables, mailing postcards, cleaning windows
Raising your children “in the fear and admonition of the Lord…,” taking responsibility to teach them to love and obey His Word
Time on your knees and in His Word asking for His heart for the harvest
Sometimes, it is leaving the familiar and comfortable to answer a call that takes you to a new city, a new country, a new continent
Praying with individuals as they repent and are filled with God’s Spirit and are ministered to, encouraged, and healed by the presence of God
Being willing to DO whatever needs to be DONE…even if it’s not glamorous…even if no on ever knows you did it…. even if it never leads to a title or an office…even if it’s “just work”
The workers are few…which leads to the old “rule:” 20% of the people doing 80% of the work. But what if we changed that and we all rolled up our sleeves and laced up our work boots and went to work? What if 80% or 85% or 100% of us decided that the harvest was our primary focus and that we were willing to put on our work clothes and do whatever work the “Lord of the Harvest” assigned us that day? I think our chances of losing none of the precious harvest would sky-rocket.
If I spend less time wasting time and more time investing time, I think my chances of impacting the harvest dramatically shift. If I am willing to pick up the tools of harvest every day and remind myself that people are God’s highest creation, they will become my primary focus…I will be sent as a worker into His harvest.
Two little thoughts about the work of the harvest occur to me:
1. “The harvest” is not only “out there.” The harvest is not only some far-off tribe in Africa or some group of people in some far-flung region of the world to whom I have no access. The harvest is WHERE YOU ARE. The harvest is in my home…on my job…at my school…at the stores I patronize and the restaurants I eat at. The harvest is driving in cars next to me…sitting on the plane or train next to me. If it is a “people,” it is the harvest. We must see everyone we meet as a potential soul for His Kingdom. He loves each individual so much. “The harvest” is WHERE you are.”
2. You don’t have to randomly start running around and assigning yourself “work.” Just DO the work that God gives you well. Make yourself available to Him and then be willing to do every task for His glory. Sometimes the great “work” of the Kingdom is “little work.” Kingdom work for me today is whatever is on my to-do list…whatever those who God has placed over me ask of me or need from me. God will assign more work as I do the work I already have. It is imperative to remember the words of Paul: “Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you are working for the Lord rather than people. Remember the Lord will give you an inheritance as your reward, and that the Master you are serving is Christ.” (Colossians 3:23-24) Your work is His work—do it well and be open to new work. When He sees you working hard and working well, He’ll give you MORE.
That is part 1: WORKERS.
Part 2 is WEEPERS.
Just before Jesus’ statement to the disciples to pray for LABORERS, we see this verse: “But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted and were scattered, as sheep having no shepherd.
They plea for workers was not a dispassionate appeal for people who could simply swing a sickle or carry a basket. It was an impassioned appeal, not only for those who would work, but for those who would work because the harvest was their heartbeat.
It is one thing to work out of duty or obligation or necessity, but it is an entirely different thing to work out of passion and intensity and devotion. It is the difference between labor and a labor of love. Work that is borne out of a passion and compassion for the harvest will make you a worker, but it will also make you a weeper.
God is the “Lord of the harvest,” and is responsible to grow things and “give the increase,” as Paul wrote (in 1 Corinthians 3:6-7), but we have several roles as we partner with Him in His fields: Sow. Water. Reap. Cue Psalms 126: “They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. He that goeth forth and weeps, bearing precious seed, will undoubtedly come again with rejoicing, bringing his harvest with him.” (Megan paraphrase) Those who plant the precious seed of God’s Word and water it with their tears and prayers will, beyond a shadow of a doubt have a harvest to rejoice about. It is WORK watered by WEEPING that yields a harvest worth rejoicing over. It is the combination of heart and hand that allows us to impact the harvest.
First, let us be an answer to Jesus’ prayer request for laborers and while we answer the call to work, let us weep…for it is weeping that makes way for rejoicing.
It is weeping that yields sheaves. It is seeds watered by tears that result in “harvest.”
Make me a worker.
Make me a weeper.
“We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves.”
–Knowles Shaw
What an incredible thought, that we can be an answer to Jesus’ prayer request for laborers!
It is at the feet of Jesus that commissions are given. That at His feet that Jesus’ heartbeat is downloaded into our chest. It is at the feet of Jesus that we are fueled for the work we are called to.
Don’t be afraid of ordinary work. Don’t be afraid of mundane work. Don’t be afraid of small work. Be encouraged in whatever you have to do today! Do it well! Do it with love! Do it as unto the Lord.
“I have so much to do that I shall spend the first three hours in prayer.” –Martin Luther
Prayer and the Word will fuel whatever work it is that God has called you to today!