Matthew 9:38
Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.
Scripture Insights
Jesus’s concern is not for programmatic efficiency or envied success. This is not a boss pressuring his employees to fulfill their quotas. The instruction in today’s scripture comes from a reservoir of love bigger than the universe itself. The gut-wrenching compassion of Jesus compels him to enlist his followers in praying for the harvest.
Jesus does not see the crowds as potential customers or a market demo- graphic. Jesus sees people. He truly sees them—just like Jesus truly sees, knows, and loves you. Out of Jesus’s compassion for people, he teaches his disciples to pray for the fruit of the kingdom to be manifest in human lives.
The harvest is plentiful! The grace of God is already at work in the hearts of all! Do you believe this? Jesus’s heart aches for the hurting and lost. He wants you to get a taste of it too.
Today’s Prayer
Lord, you alone know us yet love us fully. Even in our sinful state, you have given us grace upon grace. May we have eyes to see the stirrings of your grace in the lives of all. Raise up your harvest workers.
Prayer Journal Reflections
Reflect on bringing people to Jesus in the church in Canada and the United States.
—David Goodwin
Youth Pastor, Central Church of the Nazarene
