“And Jesus said to them, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore, pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.'”
– Luke 10:2
What an amazing verse. And it’s echoed in Matthew 9:37–38, here in Luke 10:2. And it’s real similar in the sense that right after Jesus says this, he sends out his disciples, and gives them instructions for the spread of the gospel of the kingdom through them, but he starts by saying, “The harvest is plentiful.” The harvest language here is language that we see all throughout scripture, and particularly in Jesus’ teachings as relating to judgment and salvation, and the reality that one day, every single person in the world will either experience the final judgment of God, eternity in what we’ve already seen in Luke, unquenchable fire, or the final ultimate salvation of God, everlasting joy in the presence of God.
Jesus commands us to earnestly call out to the Lord of the Harvest that laborers will be raised up to take the gospel to the ends of the earth.
We Pray For The Lord To Send Out More Laborers
So, that moment is coming for every single person. And there’s a harvest field just waiting to hear the good news of salvation. And Jesus says, “The harvest is plentiful.” The problem is not that they’re not ready to hear, the problem is the laborers are few. There are not enough laborers, who are going into the harvest field, and proclaiming the judgment, and salvation of God. “Therefore,” Jesus says, “pray earnestly.” Not just pray, but earnestly, to the Lord of the harvest to send out more laborers into his harvest, so let’s do it.
God, we pray to you, the Lord of the harvest, we’re just going to straight obey exactly what Jesus said to do here. In fact we pray together right now, earnestly, for the sending out of more laborers into the harvest field, Lord, right around us. For more people, wherever we live, more people who are going out in the power of your spirit, proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, your judgment, and your salvation.
Luke 10:2 Prays For The Shaikh Qureshi In Pakistan
In Jesus, God, we pray for more people proclaiming this in the cities where we live, in our country, in the countries where we live, and among all the nations. So God as we pray continually for unreached people in the world, we pray today for the Shaikh Qureshi in Pakistan, 773,000 of them, who have this title Shaikh, to signify their devotion to Islam, their honor, and prestige for loyalty to Islam. No known followers of Jesus among the Shaikh Qureshi, out of the 773,000 of them. God, we see a harvest that is plentiful, and we pray for laborers to go to the Shaikh Qureshi.
So God, we pray that you’d send out, we plead earnestly, that you would send out laborers to take the gospel of your kingdom, the good news of your salvation, from judgment to the Shaikh Qureshi, God we plead for that. And God, even as we prayed this, send out laborers into your harvest field. We lay down our lives, send us.
So God, make each of us, we pray, willing and obedient before you to go wherever you lead us today, right around us, to proclaim the gospel of the kingdom as laborers in the harvest field. God help us to labor in the harvest field today, right where you have put us, and then wherever you lead us. God, I just want to be so bold just to pray, Oh God, that there might be somebody listening right now, that by your spirit, you send to the Shaikh Qureshi in Pakistan.
Luke 10:2 Prays That The Laborers Spread His Word
And we all, right now, I just… We put our lives on the table in a fresh way today. God, are you calling me? Are you calling us to go to this Shaikh Qureshi in Pakistan? Raise up laborers, send out laborers into your harvest field, and make us faithful laborers in the plentiful harvest fields around us. Just to think about two to three billion people, who have little to no knowledge of the gospel of Jesus.
So God, we pray. Use us to change that, we pray for a massive raising up, and the sending out of laborers from the reached world to the unreached world. God, do it, we pray. We’re asking just like Jesus told to, as we’re praying earnestly, Lord of the harvest, send out laborers into your harvest field. We pray this in Jesus name. According to Jesus’ will, knowing you hear us, and pleading that you would answer just like you promised. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
