Ever since I first read Neil Cole’s Organic Church the alarm on my phone has gone off at 10:02 every morning, Monday-Saturday. It reminds me of Jesus’ command to his disciples in Luke 10:2b that they pray for the Lord of the Harvest to send workers into his harvest fields. That alarm just went off. I offered up my cursory prayer and then looked up at my computer to continue my reading in With Christ in the School of Prayer. It just so happened to be on chapter 9, “Pray the Lord of the harvest.” Murray asks the obvious question, “Why would God who knows the need and wants people saved need us to pray for him to send out workers?” The answer: “that His compassion may stream into us, and His Spirit be able to assure us that our prayer avails.”
The question is often posed Christian circles, “Does prayer change outcomes or does it change us?” The answer according to Murray is that we are changed when we pray with certainty that our prayer will change the outcome. So, as Murray goes on to say:
Let us set apart time and give ourselves to this part of our intercessory work. It will lead us into the fellowship of that compassionate heart of His that led Him to call for our prayers. It will elevate us to the insight of our regal position, as those whose will counts for something with the great God in the advancement of His Kingdom. It will make us feel how really we are God's fellow-workers on earth, to whom a share in His work has in downright earnest been entrusted. It will make us partakers in the soul travail, but also in the soul satisfaction of Jesus, as we know how, in answer to our prayer, blessing has been given that otherwise would not have come.
I’ve got that virus on my phone too. Sometimes – heck, quite often I let it slide because I get to work at that time. Thanks for the reminder to take it more seriously.