I have struggled recently, in our church planting efforts. I suppose this is true of all church planters but it is reality for me at this time. That said, I have been very encouraged in the last 3 days. I have received emails from people that I have not met who are praying for Heartland Church. I have been in contact with people in other states who have a desire to assist us here. My director of missions has listened and encouraged me. Today I received an email from a missionary friend who shared about prayer.
Prayer, to me, is one of the most difficult of the spiritual disciplines but also one of the most, if not the most important. I pray the thoughts below will encourage you as they have me. When you finish please say a prayer for Heartland Church and its vision to begin a church that plants other churches:
Who saw the need? Jesus.
Who pointed it out to the disciples? Jesus.
Who is the one who sends out workers? Jesus.
What did he tell the disciples to do? ASK Him to send out workers!
Does that strike you as odd? Jesus was the one who observed the need AND He is the one who can meet the need. Why, then, would He bother to point it out to the disciples and ask them to pray? Why not simply start calling out workers without the “middle-man” of the praying disciples? All I can figure out is the He really wants us to be involved through prayer!! Could we even dare suggest that He may wait on our prayer involvment before He calls out workers?
He very directly tells them why He is asking them to pray.
He tells them to ask the FATHER to send workers, so that the Will of the FATHER may be accomplished.
One Louv