Writing to address Jesus’ words in Matthew 9:37-38 — “Then he said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is abundant, but the workers are few. Therefore, pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest'” — David Platt offers this challenge for all of us today:
At the end of chapter 9, Jesus mentions two main things that we must do with urgency. First, in light of the abundant harvest of people who are separated from God, Jesus beckons us to pray. He says, “Therefore, pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest” (v. 38; emphasis added). Notice that Jesus doesn’t say, “Here’s the harvest, now go!” Instead, He says, “Here’s the harvest, now pray.” Jesus will eventually get to the “go” part, but first His followers must be on their knees, asking and pleading with God to send out workers. This is precisely what we should be doing in our churches as we seek to send people out regularly into this dark world to proclaim the gospel. We should actually pray for people to leave . . . on mission! God loves to answer prayers like this. Our churches ought to be sending bases of laborers for the harvest of souls. No one is to be a spectator.
