My focus has been fine, but my motivation has been off. I was burdened for a good thing, but the reason for my burden was blurred. I think I have had the wrong motivation.

In Matthew 9:37-38, Jesus said “…The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”

I have focused on “the workers are few”. So, I have prayed as Jesus instructed “Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers”. That is the appropriate prayer and I am going to keep on praying it. But, I now believe that my motivation for this prayer has been wrong. My motivation has been that we don’t have enough people working (serving). We don’t have enough people, but I have been stuck on that fact. I have been praying about that fact and my motivation has been to get more people to work/serve. That is a good thing to get more to serve/work. So what is wrong with my motivation?

Look at Jesus’ words from Matthew 9:37 again. “…The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.” What jumped out to you?

For me, the thing that jumped out was that “the workers are few”. That is true. But I was skipping over why we need more workers and it is not just because we don’t have enough workers. The reason we don’t have enough workers is because “the harvest is plentiful”!!!

We need more workers because there so many people who need to be reached and so many people who will respond to Christ if only someone would show them and share with them.

I need to keep praying for more workers, but I need to pray because I am brokenhearted over how many are lost. My prayer needs to be more passionate, praying for more workers because of the people who are in need. My motivation can’t just be to drag more workers out and about. My motivation needs to be for the souls who are, as Jesus said in Matthew 9:36, “…harassed and helpless”. I need to have compassion for them as Jesus did and plead for more people to serve/work on their behalf. Not because I want to be able to report that I have more people working/serving. But because I care so much for the harvest and the people who are in need and will likely respond to the good news if someone who cares will simply come alongside them and love them into the kingdom.

I want to keep praying and pleading for more servers/workers. But I want to always do it with the motivation of the harvest, not to fill spots on an organizational chart.

Are you praying for more servers/workers? What is your motivation?

Dennis