Matthew 9:36-38 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37 Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. 38 Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field." (NIV)
Psalm 2:8-9 Ask of me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession. 9 You will rule them with an iron sceptre; you will dash them to pieces like pottery." (NIV)
Most Christian will work all their lives in secular jobs. This should be an advantage. Imagine what would happen if we all started praying consistently for our work colleagues that do not know the Lord.
Have you given up praying for your work colleagues and neighbours? Or maybe you have never started. Some of us are so baffled about how to share the gospel we them that we have given up trying before even starting.
" I understand that it was your prayers that were responsible for my being here. "
Lord Jesus, I know you have broken the hold of sin, the world and ignorance over these people's hearts and minds. I speak the love and peace of God over their hearts and mind. Allow them to see the light, hope and new life that the gospel brings them. Remove the blindness from their eyes. Lord Jesus, let your grace bring them in contact with people that will expose them to the love of Christ in such a manner that they will accept it. (Colossians 1: 9-14)
Lord God, it is not your will that any should perish. I pray in accordance with your will and Word. Let your will be done in these people's life. Give me the strength to continue in prayer for them. Lord let your will be done. Let them come to a living knowledge of your love.
Bring them to the point of repentance from their lack of serving you. Bring them into the kingdom of your son. Let them embrace and live in the love of God free from the deception of the world. (1 Timothy 2: 1-6, 1 Peter 3:18)
Lord, let your compassion continue to keep these people from the destruction of evil. Let them not see death before knowing you. However long it might take, your promise never fails. Lord I commit into your hands these people who were created in your image.
They will know you before they see death in Jesus' name (2 Peter 3:9).
In Jesus name I pray.
Scriptural background
Psalm 2:8-9
Ask of Me, and I will give [You] The nations [for] Your inheritance, And the ends of the earth [for] Your possession. 9 You shall break them with a rod of iron; You shall dash them to pieces like a potter's vessel.' " (NKJV) Matthew 20:28
"just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many." (NKJV)Colossians 1:9-14
For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; 10 that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing [Him,] being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;
11 strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy; 12 giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. 13 He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed [us] into the kingdom of the Son of His love, 14 in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins. (NKJV)1 Timothy 2:1-6
Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, [and] giving of thanks be made for all men, 2 for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. 3 For this [is] good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, 4 who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. 5 For [there is] one God and one Mediator between God and men, [the] Man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time, (NKJV)1 Peter 3:18
For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit, (NKJV)2 Peter 3:9
The Lord is not slack concerning [His] promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. (NKJV)