Moved with compassion for crowds like sheep without a shepherd, Jesus commands specific prayer: ask God to send workers into His harvest. The need is not a shortage of ready people but of willing laborers — and those who pray this prayer often become its answer.
Matthew 9:38 KJV“Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.”
Read Matthew 9 →
Jesus commands prayer for laborers in the harvest — a specific, outward-focused intercession for God to send workers to reach those who don't know Him. This is not a vague prayer for 'the world' but a focused appeal to the Lord of the harvest. Are you actually praying this? Not occasionally, not as a phrase repeated in church, but interceding for God to raise up and send workers into the harvest around you?
Pray today for the Lord of the harvest to send laborers. Name the places you know: your workplace, your neighborhood, the city around you. Ask Him to raise up workers and send them. When you see someone isolated or lost, pray right then for God to send someone to them — or to open your own eyes to how you might be sent. Pray it now, and mean it.
Obeying this command draws you deeper into relationship with the Father by aligning your heart with His urgent desire for the harvest. You depend on His provision. You invite Him to act. You witness His response. Your trust deepens as you consistently bring His own concern before Him, and you learn His character as the One who sends.
This is one of 69 direct commands of Jesus in the free Red Letter Challenge: All Commands of Jesus — The Living Sword
Read every Scripture in your chosen translation (WEB, KJV, Geneva, YLT, and more) at https://www.thelivingsword.org/red-letter-challenge/pray-the-lord-of-the-harvest