Need a place to begin? Start by praying for these three areas.
Pray for Missionaries to Know God
Before praying to the Lord for missionaries, take some time to read God’s word and to think about who God is. Meditate on his character and his attributes. Praise him for his goodness and mercy.
Think about your own relationship with God and your standing with him. Do you trust and follow Jesus? Have you repented of your sin? If not, learn more about the gospel of Jesus Christ before praying for missionaries.
We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him. (John 9:31)
Search your heart, repent, and believe as you pray.
Pray for Missionaries to Know God’s Word
God has given us his word so we can know his will. As you begin to pray for missionaries, read God’s word to learn God’s plan for his people and pray accordingly.
And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. (1 John 5:14)
Read his words and use them to pray for the workers he has around the globe.
For example, Romans 10:13-14 says, “For ‘everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’ How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?”
So you could pray this back to God by praising him for saving anyone who calls on his name, asking that the people who don’t know him in the specific country you’re praying for would come to know him, that the national believers would be bold to preach the gospel, and so on.
Praying God’s word back to him gives us confidence that we are praying according to his will! There is power in his word that he invites us to unleash upon the nations.
- Revelation 7:9
- Matthew 9:38
- Matthew 28:19–20
- Romans 10:13–14
- Matthew 6:25–34
- Matthew 4:4–7
- Acts 1:8
- Acts 13:47
Pray for Missionaries to Know the Workers
A missionary is a follower of Jesus who takes on a specific mission to share the gospel, especially if they are sent to a different location. It’s important to know the missionaries you are praying for and build relationships with them if you can so that you can pray for them effectively.
From the Western perspective, we see two types of missionaries working side by side.
Foreign Missionaries: These Christians—often Westerners—leave their home cultures to live in a foreign culture to worship and share the good news about Christ there. Countries from all over the world send Christians to other places for this purpose.
Typically, national partners focus on church planting, relief work, evangelism and outreach, education, and child povertyin their areas. One of the benefits national partners experience is that they often don’t have to learn a new language or culture and they can sometimes reach people that foreigners couldn’t.
To get to know national partners, explore websites like Live Global, where national partners share frequent updates about their ministries. It’s exciting to see God work in creative ways through national believers across the globe.
Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared on Live Global September 28, 2016. Used with permission.
