EMQ » January–March 2023 » Volume 59 Issue 1
By Madison Strauder*
We’ve all seen them. Sometimes they are glossy booklets with engaging photos of far-off places and people. Other times they are bookmarks in our Bibles or magnets on our fridge. Whether we have held them in our hands, scrolled through them online or received them in our inbox – we have all at some point undoubtedly had a prayer guide put before us. There are guides focusing on the unreached, on religious festivals, and on various religions. There are guides for cities and countries. The growing list of what the committed follower of Christ should be praying for seems endless and overwhelming. Why bother with so many guides? Do prayer guides even engage people in missions? What, if any, real impact do they have?
Our Story
For the past 20 years, my family and I have served among South Asians. Seven years into our South Asian megacity assignment, God called us to write a weekly prayer update in addition to our quarterly newsletter. Honestly, we were discouraged by the lack of communication we received from our quarterly messages. However, in obedience to what we believed God was asking us to do, we wrote our newsletter list of over three hundred people and asked who would be willing to partner with us weekly in prayer. Ten people replied. Ten.
We began writing weekly praises, prayer requests, and a kid’s corner. It was short, sweet and to the point, with the only graphics being three photos from the week – basically a weekly prayer guide from our family. We shared transparently from our lives and work and saw God answer prayers we had been praying for years, as ten more people prayed with us in strategic and informed ways.
For years, we asked God for national partners, and, as people prayed, God brought to a family who had converted to Christianity from Islam and wanted to work with us. He also directed us to a local pastor who led his church to partner with us as well. We asked God to call out people to minister in our city, and, as people prayed, God brought us two young women who spent two years working alongside us.
God used these weekly prayer prompts to show us, and our prayer partners, that intercessory prayer is a way every follower of Christ can be a part of reaching the nations.
Why Does Prayer Matter?
God’s Word teaches us that the largest problem in the world is not a humanitarian crisis, or a natural disaster, or political upheaval, or disease. The largest problem in the world is lostness. Today 157,690 people around the world will die without Christ.[i] Each is a person – a father, a mother, a daughter, a son, a grandparent, an uncle, an aunt – created in the image of God that Jesus died for so that they might have freedom from sin and eternal life with him. And we don’t need to sit back idly and watch. There is something we can we do right now, wherever we are.
We can call out to God in prayer. Throughout Scripture we see prayer modeled as relational communication with God. We see it as a recognition of his holiness and our depravity. We read prayers of adoration, confession, and thanksgiving. We also see that God, in his sovereignty, works through the prayers of his people. This incredible gift of communication with the Creator of the universe is given to the Church.
As believers come before God with hearts prepared through confession of sin, their prayers are heard and acted upon by him (James 5:16). We know that he alone is the way to eternal life (Acts 4:12). God tells his people to ask him for the nations (Psalm 2:8) and to come before him constantly in intercession (Luke 18:1–8). We know that he has come to seek the lost (Luke 19:10). We also know that the harvest is plentiful, and the workers are few and that we should call out to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers (Matthew 9:37–38).
Prayer is not optional for an obedient, abiding, follower of Jesus. Furthermore, there is not a specific prayer gifting listed in Scripture that we see God give only to a few. God gave every believer the command and the opportunity to seek him in prayer.
Why Prayer Guides?
As sent-ones both individually and collectively as part of mission agencies, one aspect of our stewardship is to tell the stories of the nations to the global Church. We are called to invite them into what God is doing, direct their attention to where laborers are needed, and equip them to personally participate in God’s mission through prayer. Prayer guides are an important part of this. They are not just photos and names of imaginary characters and locations. These guides present men, women, and children who are created in the image of God. In each, is prayer content that gives opportunity for strategic and informed prayer for the nations, the tribes, and the peoples of the earth.
With the help of prayer guides, we invite the church to pray for the peoples and places of this world by name. In so doing, we come alongside one another and help carry the burden of lostness together as the body of Christ. We weep over the people we so deeply desire to see come out of darkness and into the light, to be transferred from the power of Satan to God (Acts 26:18). But we weep with hope as we call out to God to draw hearts to himself and to bring laborers into his harvest. We rejoice corporately as we see that transformation. He is doing it, and we are watching it play out before our eyes while we join with one another in intercessory prayer.
As God’s people pray, we fight against the enemy. Perhaps you have seen it in your ministry. God’s people pray for an unreached people with no known laborers. God responds and sends people to serve – sometimes from among those very people who have been praying. They go and live in that place. As people continue to pray, God prepares the hearts of people from this unreached group. People repent and believe. A church is planted. God gives fruit. God hears. He answers.
Can a Prayer Guide Engage People in Missions?
Intercessory prayer is not an ineffectual discipline to check off a list. It is an invitation to cry out to our Father, the Almighty God, to work in and through his Church and to draw the lost to himself. Major breakthroughs are precipitated by the fervent prayer of God’s people. And we see examples of God’s work through passionate intercessors throughout the Bible – especially in the lives of Abraham, Moses, Elijah, and people in the early church.
As laborers among the nations, we know the need for prayer. The task is enormous, and we are confident that we are not sufficient to bring about change in the lives of those to whom we have been sent. The visions of Revelation 5:9–10 and 7:9 show the work of the triune God. No one should have to convince us of the need to encourage others to join us in prayer for our work. But that isn’t the only goal.
Prayer guides can be an important tool for mobilizing prayer. This can create partnerships between missionaries serving among the nations and the global Church. Praying for the nations also has an impact on the lives of each person, church, and community engaged in prayer as the Lord gives them hearts for the lost. Their faith increases as they see God answer their prayers, and as they pray, God aligns their wills with his. Millions of people operating in alignment with God’s will for their lives can change the world as God’s renown spreads to the ends of the earth.
How Does a Prayer Guide Effect Change?
Prayer is a strategy that God lays in his Word to wage war against the darkness, increase laborers in his harvest, and soften hearts to respond to him. Prayer guides inform people so that they can actively participate in this strategy.
Ephesians 6:10–20 speaks specifically of the war being against spiritual forces and gives clear instructions for how to stand firm. We are not to be passive. We are to be armed with salvation, faith, truth, his Word, righteousness, feet shod with the gospel of peace. Prayer guides give believers relevant ways to know where the enemy still has strongholds which clues us in to areas where we need to increase the intensity of our prayers. We don’t know how God might chose to engage that people or place, but we know that we are to stand firm and listen for instructions for how he might call us to go further in obedience to him.
In Matthew 9:38 and Luke 10:2, Jesus says that the “harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore, pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” The harvest exists. This is not a barren field. Fruit is abundant and ready. However, the problem is not enough people are gathering the harvest.
So, what does Jesus say to do? He says to pray earnestly. Ask the Lord of the harvest to send laborers into his harvest. These are his fields. He knows them. We know from Revelation 5 and 7 that this harvest includes people from every nation, every tribe, every people, and every language. Through prayer guides, God sends more laborers in the harvest. Prayer guides let us know where laborers are most urgently needed, so that we can engage with God in sending people to participate in the harvest.
For those of us living and working in areas where we see little to no fruit – we can rejoice that a harvest exists even if we don’t yet see it. Prayer guides can help people experience these places and explain the challenges. As believers call out to God together on behalf of lost peoples and the laborers amongst them, God changes hearts. Laborers in the fields are encouraged to continue to serve as God plants the seeds of the gospel through them. Those praying experience a deeper connection to God’s heart for the lost. He gives compassion and passion to see them reached. And through prayer, God works to prepare the hearts of communities with no believers to receive the good news and become the fruit of his harvest.
Conclusion
Do prayer guides change the world? No. Does God use the prayers of his people to change the world? Yes. Are prayer guides worthy of our efforts to create? Yes.
Why? Because he is worthy of the worship of every single person on this planet. He is worthy of all worship, of all praise. In him alone is freedom, hope, joy, peace. To this end we pray. We pray for his kingdom to come. We pray that today people from every nation, every tribe, every people, and every language would turn to him and be saved. If you’re still breathing, you’re still in this battle.
How can you press on in fervent intercessory prayer? If you are not actively mobilizing prayer for the peoples and places you work among, change that. Start where you are and then be faithful to do what you start. If you want to be more intentional in praying for the nations, start today. If you need a resource, you can download the International Mission Board’s 52-week guide (imb.org/pray/loving-the-lost/) that highlights people groups from around the world.
One day we will stand before the throne. Our wealth, titles, and resumes will no longer mean anything – we can’t take them with us! But we can pray, and through our prayers, we can bring people – people who have heard the good news, repented of their sins, and chosen to follow Christ.
Who will you be a part of bringing before the throne?
Madison Strauder* serves with the IMB among South Asians with her husband, Clint, and three boys. They are passionate about reaching the lost and mobilizing the church.
* Pseudonym used for security purposes. Author image is representative.
NOTES
[i] International Mission Board, Annual Statistical Report: Reporting on 2021 Data, May 2022, https://www.imb.org/research/annual-statistical-report/.
EMQ, Volume 59, Issue 1. Copyright © 2023 by Missio Nexus. All rights reserved. Not to be reproduced or copied in any form without written permission from Missio Nexus. Email: EMQ@MissioNexus.org.
