One of my favorite conferences of the year in the life of a local church is missions conference! It’s a great time to fellowship with like-minded missionaries who have dedicated their lives to reach a particular country with the gospel of Jesus Christ (Acts 1:8)! Furthermore, there is great preaching and fellowship around the Scriptures! This year’s key-note speaker was Dr. Fred Moritz, who throughout the conference delivered several challenging messages. His concluding sermon Sunday night after the international dinner on how to biblically pray for missionaries and church planters is what I would like to outline for you in this post.
Pray for Power (2 Thess. 3:1) – Paul urged the believers to frequently lift up prayers so that “…the word of the Lord may have free course…” In other words, pray that missionaries will have many opportunities to present the gospel of Jesus Christ to lost people! It is a biblically thing to fervently pray that the Word of God will run free and spread rapidly in their place of ministry.
Pray for Protection (2 Thess. 3:2) – Paul requested prayer for safety “…from unreasonable and wicked men…” who were opposed to the truth of the gospel. We must pray that our missionaries have protection as they perform the Lord’s work.
Pray for Provision (2 Cor. 1:8-11) – Paul thanked the Corinthians “…for the gift bestowed upon us…” Sending people to the mission field isn’t cheap, but what a worthy and eternal investment! Along with financial support there are many other items (passports, housing, transportation, food, citizenship, etc) that must take place. It is a biblical thing to pray that the needs of our missionaries are met so they can focus on spreading the gospel.
Pray for Personnel (Matt. 9:35-38) – Finally, our Lord Jesus Christ clearly stated, in imperative mode, that “…the harvest is truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few; pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.” It takes people to communicate the gospel (Rom. 10:14), therefore we must obediently and diligently pray that Christians will hear and answer the call to missions. The next generation of missionaries is only going to come from the local church that is faithfully praying.
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