Praying for the Lost

Matthew 9:36-38   When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field."

Each of us can be one of those workers in the harvest field of the world...right from your own home, through prayer. 

Prayer is especially significant for missions because in mission work, we come up against so much of the evil status quo and the fatalistic views of so many cultures. Satan desires that the Christians, in missions or in mission support, will doubt God’s power to change. He doesn’t want us to beseech the God of the Universe to bring unreached people groups to Himself because Satan will continue to lose ground. Satan wants us to think that the situation is hopeless, that the people are a lost cause, that God doesn’t care about them.
   
This is a battle for every soul!  We must engage in petitionary prayer on behalf of the lost and in our own lives. We must ask ourselves this question...”Do we really think God would fail to bring about justice for His chosen ones who cry to Him night and day? Will He keep putting them off?” Jesus answered it for us in Luke 18:7-8, “I tell you, He will see that they get justice, and quickly.”
   
So, what do we do? How do we go beyond a quick "bless the people in China and bring all the lost to you" into true spiritual warfare on behalf of the lost? God has provided a wealth of resources.

The two websites I visit every day during my prayer time are:
http://www.operationworld.org/
http://www.unreachedoftheday.org/

One I use with my children to help them learn about and pray for other countries (each country has a short video which really helps them gain a visual sense of a nation) is:
https://www.1040windowreporter.com/day-1

The website, Operation World, leads you in prayer for a new country every day, and not only do you pray very specific prayers for that country, but you also will learn a lot about other countries in the process. Unreached of the day will lead you in prayer for a different group of people/nation each day who need to know about Jesus. Your prayers for these people will prepare their hearts to hear the Gospel

There are also a number of other wonderful resources, both books and websites. I have listed just a few of them below. I will list more as I come across them under the "Prayer" tab at the top of the page or along the right side of the blog.

Window on the World (for children) and Operation World (for adults) books
The Prayer Driven Life by Pastor Robert Oh
Voices of the Faithful by Beth Moore
Voice of the Martyrs www.persecution.com  sends out a weekly list of prayer requests for the persecuted church
http://www.finishthetask.org/prayeralliance/calendar.pdf

Prayer is effective and so very necessary...it moves the hand of God!

Colossians 4:3-4 And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should.