Labouring for God
by Carolyn Ehrlich
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… he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd (Matthew 9:36b).
Read Matthew 9:35–10:4
I wonder if our world today is, in many ways, just the same as it was 2,000 years ago. Crowds of people who are harassed and helpless. Trying to find their own way. Searching for things to satisfy them. Concerned about the political landscape. Looking for a Messiah but not knowing where to look. Looking in all the wrong places. Busy, busy, busy … working, eating, sleeping, shopping, looking for the next big ‘fix’. Worried, anxious. Sick, harassed and helpless. At the whim of the global economy, foreign powers, big companies, technology.
And what was Jesus’ response? ‘He had compassion for them.’ Jesus cared for his people then, and he cares for us now. He was compassionate then, and he is compassionate now. Now, as then, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few’ (verse 37).
And then what did Jesus do? He instructed his disciples in verse 38, ‘therefore, pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest’. Two things impacted me when I read this verse. The first is at the end of the verse. The harvest is God’s. Now, that is interesting to me. It seems to me that it is easy to slip into thinking that we must do something about the plentiful harvest. It is all too easy to fall into thinking that we must go about God’s work of saving people. But saving people is God’s work.
So, what are we to do? That is the second thing that impacted me as I read. We are to ‘pray earnestly that God send[s] out labourers’. This leads me to ask what the word ‘earnest’ means. As I go to my trusty Google search engine, I discover it means ‘sincere’ and ‘genuine’. So, in this harassed and helpless world, are you worrying about the world situation, about the number of people who need to be saved, about whether God’s labourers are doing what you think they should be doing? Or are you praying earnestly, sincerely and genuinely that God will send labourers into the harvest?
My Heavenly Father, through your Son, Jesus Christ, I pray that you will send labourers into the harvest. People around me seem to be harassed and helpless, trapped in the never-ending demands of this world. Please have compassion on them and send out your labourers to bring them to Jesus, the good shepherd. Amen.
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