Lesson 98 · Unit 15 · His Heart for the Nations
Praying for a People
The first feet in mission are a pair of bent knees.
Open
On missions Sunday the brother at the door pressed a card into everyone's hand. Yours had the name of a people group on it — you had to read it twice before it came out right — and a line of small type underneath: population about 1.3 million, believers fewer than one in a thousand. You tucked the card into your Bible, meaning to pray for them later.
Three months later, one evening, the card slipped out of the Psalms and landed on the floor. You picked it up, and that awkward name looked back at you. A million and a third people, and you do not know a single one. But you remember that in those three months you have prayed a few dozen times about a parking space, a physical, your child's grades.
That night you prayed for a group of strangers for the first time — stumbling over it, like learning a new language.
Scripture
First watch how Jesus moves people toward prayer, then borrow the psalmist's prayer to open your mouth. (Matthew 9:36-38; Psalm 67:1-4, WEB)
36But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion for them because they were harassed and scattered, like sheep without a shepherd.
37Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest indeed is plentiful, but the laborers are few.
38Pray therefore that the Lord of the harvest will send out laborers into his harvest.”
1For the Chief Musician. With stringed instruments. A Psalm. A song. May God be merciful to us, bless us, and cause his face to shine on us. Selah.
2That your way may be known on earth, and your salvation among all nations,
3let the peoples praise you, God. Let all the peoples praise you.
4Oh let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you will judge the peoples with equity, and govern the nations on earth. Selah.
See
See, be moved, then pray
Notice the order in Matthew 9. Jesus first "saw the multitudes" — in his eyes that is not a crowd but faces, one at a time. Then he "was moved with compassion" — the word underneath is a verb of the inward organs being wrenched, the kind of pity the body feels. And then? He does not immediately put anyone on the road. He tells the disciples, "Pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers." Before the action come the eyes, and then the knees. One more detail is worth keeping: one chapter later these praying people are the ones being sent (Matt 10:1). The mouth that prays for a harvest is often attached to a pair of feet about to set out.
The other map
You know the usual world map: drawn by borders, a couple of hundred countries. But there is another map, drawn by whether the gospel can be heard. In some peoples the church has long been rooted. In others, a person who wanted to seek would find no church nearby, no Bible in the mother tongue, not one believing neighbor. Groups like that are usually called unreached peoples, and there are still thousands of them today. They are not people who have refused the gospel; they are people who have not yet heard it. Psalm 67 teaches us to pray over that map: "that your way may be known on earth, and your salvation among all nations."
How to adopt a people
The practice can be very plain. Find the facts: get a profile of an unreached people from your church or a trustworthy mission agency — where they live, what they speak, what they worship, what they lack. Set a time: put that name into the rhythm of prayer you already keep, even if it is one minute a day. Ask specifically: ask God to open a door for the gospel; ask him to send laborers, including laborers raised up from among themselves; ask that the Bible be translated into their language soon; ask that the believers already there would stand firm. You can also adopt a group close at hand — your housing block, your trade, the people from your home province. Overseas and downstairs are not ranked in God's eyes; they are different corners of one field.
Deeper
See, be moved, pray (Matt 9:36-38)
Jesus' order: before the action come the eyes, and then the knees.
The Lord of the harvest
the harvest is his and the laborers are sent by him; prayer hands the sovereignty back to the Lord and puts the anxiety down.
Unreached peoples
groups who cannot reach the gospel on their own: not people who have refused it, but people who have not yet heard it.
The logic of Psalm 67
"God bless us" is so "your salvation" may be known "among all nations": a prayer for blessing is born pointing at the nations.
Story
James O. Fraser was born in London, trained as an engineer, and played the piano well enough to give a recital. In 1908 he joined the China Inland Mission and went to China, into the mountains of western Yunnan to bring the gospel to the Lisu. The first years yielded almost nothing: he learned the hill dialect, walked the ridges, handed out tracts village by village, and got back mostly coldness and mockery, along with a depression that nearly swallowed him.
At the bottom of it he reached a conclusion: this battle would not be won from a platform but on the knees. He wrote home to England and asked his mother to gather a small circle of people who would pray year in and year out over the items he sent back — he called it the prayer battle, and said he would rather have a few who prayed persistently than a large crowd who merely sympathized. Some years later the door on the far side of the mountains swung open: Lisu households turned to the Lord, one village after another. The alphabet he devised for the Lisu language is still in use; the four-part choirs of the Lisu church are still singing in those valleys today.
(Historical; see Eileen Crossman, Mountain Rain, 1982. Details condensed.)
Respond
Reflect — alone, or talk it through together
1In Matt 9:36-38, between Jesus' "seeing" and his charge to pray stands "compassion" — when was the last time a group of people moved you in the gut?
2"The people who pray in one chapter are the people who are sent in the next" — does that order make you eager, or hesitant? Why?
3If you were to adopt a people group, or a group close at hand, who comes to mind first? And what is keeping you from starting?
Saved on this device only — visible to no one but you.
Pray together
Lord of the harvest, who had compassion on those who were harassed and scattered: the multitudes you see, I usually see as background. Lend me your eyes, and put your compassion inside me. The harvest is yours, so I will not stand here anxious and empty-handed — I will ask you instead: open a door for the peoples who have not yet heard, and send laborers out into your harvest. And when you make that list, do not skip over me. Amen.
Walk
This week's actionabout 20 min
Choose one unreached people, or one group close at hand, and spend twenty minutes learning their basic situation. Write down three specific things to pray. Pray for them three times this week — a minute or two each time is enough.
Mark it when it happens — this week, at your pace.
Spiritual practice
Fold Matt 9:38 into a prayer you can say anywhere: "Lord of the harvest, send out laborers — and count me in." Say it at a red light, or standing in a queue.
Memory verse · Matthew 9:38
PraythereforethattheLordoftheharvestwillsendoutlaborersintohisharvest.
Walk further
The next scene after the seventy-two were sent, Hudson Taylor who founded the China Inland Mission, the companionship of intercession from Lesson 62, the theme of prayer, and a prayer for missionaries.