This is not the first time we hear this earnest appeal of our Savior to pray for laborers in His ripening mission fields. But how are we complying with His request? There are still vast areas in Africa, Asia, and South America untouched by the saving Gospel. There are still vast multitudes in our own country that faint and die for want of the saving means of grace. Why? Because many church members are so inactive that even an agnostic said to his Christian friend: "If you church people really took to heart this story of Christ's love for sinners, the very ground would burn under your feet, and you wouldn't rest until you had told it to every man alive."

It is true, not every Christian can be a called and ordained preacher of the Gospel, but every Christian, and therefore you and I, can and ought often and earnestly to plead the cause of our Savior's mission fields at the throne of divine mercy and zealously beseech the Lord, especially in these days, when so many mission festivals are held throughout our church, to send pious and efficient reapers into His harvest fields.

Let us never forget that it is the Lord who gives the Gospel and must send forth the missionaries (Psalm 68:11). The more we obey His request and pray for His Gospel cause, the more will our hearts love it; the more will we be ready to support the ministry and all our missions at home and abroad; the more will we exercise our Christian privilege and duty of personally witnessing to the unchurched and the unbelievers. May we become ever more willing to make such sacrifices and to perform such services as will help to disseminate the Gospel of Jesus Christ!

[devotion text by Rev. F. W. Herzberger (1920) -
from the Family Altar - CPH (1957 edition)]
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