How Can I Get a Heart for Missions? - Mrs. Valiante

Then saith He unto His disciples,

The harvest 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.

Matthew 9:37, 38

If missionaries are lacking in God’s field of service, why then did Jesus only say “pray” instead of at this instance to “go”? I believe Jesus was asking them first to have a heart for missions before they took the step of fulfilling the role of a missionary.

While in college, I was challenged with this very command to pray before focusing on whether I ought to go. I began joining others in a time of prayer for specific missionaries and their fields. As I prayed for them and their needs, I began to be burdened about the need for missionaries and more specifically to ask whether God would want me to go. Prayer gives us the chance to see things from God’s perspective. If we are praying for His will to be done, He begins to give us a desire to do His will.

It was only after Jesus asks His disciples to pray that He actually sends them out on their own first missions trip (see Matthew 10:1). He wanted them first to get a heart for ministry before doing it themselves. I believe what encouraged me the most in praying for missions and having a heart for missions was to communicate with missionaries. While growing up, my family had missionaries over as they passed through on furlough or deputation. Their conversations, both while they were with us and away through letters to the church and personal letters, gave me a stronger burden for missionaries and their fields. Going on trips to visit missionaries also increased my understanding of their burdens and increased my own burden for people and ministry. I look forward to this coming missions trip and learning more of the burden for Puerto Rico and more specifically for the people to whom the Westerbands are ministering.

Maybe someday you would like to go, but have you first begun to pray? Pray and then communicate with the missionaries God has placed in your path. Prayer will put your desires in line with God’s desires, and His desire might just be for you to go.

What Does a Missionary Have to be Willing to Give Up? - Mrs. Washer

In a word, everything. A person (whether they are a missionary or not) who has dedicated their life to serving Christ, must die to their own desires. We see throughout the Bible that when people obeyed God, it often meant leaving home or country, family, financial security, and possibly risk their own lives. Some examples we find include:

-Abraham was asked to sacrifice his son (Genesis 22:2)
-Joseph was imprisoned (Genesis 39:20)
-Esther risked her life to approach the king to save the Jewish people (Esther 5:1)
-Paul was shipwrecked (Acts 27:43 & 44)
-Jesus was asked to give up His life to save mankind from our sin (Matthew 26:39)

Although these were great sacrifices, we also see how God provided great blessings through their obedience:

-Abraham and Isaac were patriarchs of a great nation of people (Genesis 22:17 – 18)
-Joseph became a powerful ruler in Egypt and saved his family from starvation
(Genesis 45:7)
-Esther’s life was spared and the Jews were allowed to defend themselves (Esther
8:11)
-Paul was used to bring the Gospel to the Gentiles (Acts 28:28)
-Jesus died so that we might live eternally with Him (John 14:6)

When we serve God, it does not mean we will be asked to give up these things. We are only to give God our complete surrender to His plan for us and that He can use us however He sees fit.