Daily Devotions
“The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into His harvest field.” Luke 10:2
Jesus compared the ingathering of people into His kingdom to a harvest. He said as He sent out the 72 disciples as missionaries: “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into His harvest field.”
In answer to the church’s prayers, God sends His workers out into the world to proclaim the Gospel of forgiveness and grace with God, thanks to the redeeming work of Jesus Christ. It remains for us to follow up our prayers with every possible assistance we can give the Lord’s reapers.
A man who did this in an effective way was Cyrus H. McCormick. He had invented the self-binder, or grain-reaping machine. It made him a wealthy man, a man who ushered in a new era in the method of harvesting grain. Being a Christian man, he did much to help also in the harvest of souls. He gave liberally toward founding a theological seminary in Chicago bearing his name. Through the years thousands of men have been trained there for ministry and mission. McCormick helped the Lord’s reapers in bringing in the sheaves.
Most of us are not able to do what this man did. But God gives us other opportunities to participate in the harvest of souls. We have such opportunities as Christian parents in the home, as church members who support world missions, as persons who, at work and elsewhere, witness to their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
All the while we keep on doing what our Lord told us to do – to pray, “Thy kingdom come,” to pray that He would send more pastors, teachers, medical missionaries, and the like into His harvest field.
PRAYER: Lord God, help me to do my part in sending faithful workers into the harvest fields of worldwide missions. Amen.
(Devotions from “With Jesus Every Day” copyright 1997, CPH. All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be printed, reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission of Concordia Publishing House. Permission is granted for one-time emailing of this link to a friend. For information on other devotional material, please contact CPH at 800-325-3040 or visit CPH at www.cph.org.)