CHARISSA CHEONG says while events can lead us to wonder what God is doing, the answer may involve Him working through us, His children…
London, UK
“The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.” PICTURE: Polina Rytova/Unsplash
“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.'” – Matthew 9:36-38 (NIV)
The Father so wants to reach this hurting world.
It can be tempting to look at all the devastation and pain in the world and wonder what God is doing amidst it all. I wonder if the answer we are sometimes reluctant to turn to is that God wants to do something through us, His children.
“It can be tempting to look at all the devastation and pain in the world and wonder what God is doing amidst it all. I wonder if the answer we are sometimes reluctant to turn to is that God wants to do something through us, His children.”
In Matthew 9, Jesus tells His disciples that the “harvest is plentiful”, that there are many people out there with problems that only He can solve, and whose lives will be changed forever from the moment they encounter Him. He then suggests that it’s our job, as workers, to go out into the field and bring in this harvest, that we have a role to play in bringing people to Jesus.
If I’m being honest, I often struggle with this concept. Firstly, I don’t often live my daily life in realisation that the harvest is plenty and that there are literally millions of ways God wants to move in the world outside my doorstep. So often, I don’t choose to tune my spiritual eyes to seeing the world the way He sees it. Jesus’ Kingdom is still coming into fullness, and yet, I don’t always sign myself up for the work of participating in it.
As I’ve gotten closer to Jesus throughout my life, I’ve slowly been able to see with more clarity how He can move in incredible ways when we just give Him space. I’m learning not to limit my faith and expectations of Jesus’ mighty power to just the workings of my personal life, but to also entrust to Him the situations and people around me as well. The more I’ve opened myself up to partnering with the work of the Holy Spirit in the places and scenarios I find myself, the more I’ve seen Him move in rooms and reveal what He is doing or wants to do in situations to me in my prayers for those things.
I think that what this passage in Matthew tells us is that some situations around us continue to look helpless because we are refusing to allow God to work His solution through us in the form of our prayers and/or our responses to the Holy Spirit calling us to action. As the church, we are the body of Christ, and He has chosen to do His work on earth through us, in partnership with us. If we choose to sit back with our hands folded, why are we surprised when, as Jesus said, our world looks “harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd”?
Jesus is the Good Shepherd (John 10:11, NIV), and His Kingdom, when it comes in all its fullness, will be a place where there is no “death or sorrow or crying or pain” (Revelation 21:4, NLT) where all people who trust in Him are free from oppression and destruction and evil, and can enjoy a relationship with Him forever. I want to see that Kingdom come, and I want to be willing to go out into the Lord’s fields, no matter what it costs me.
We rely on our readers to fund Sight's work - become a financial supporter today!
For more information, head to our Subscriber's page.
There are so many reasons why many of us might be hesitant or afraid to step out into the mission field, the places where Jesus has and will place us, and tell people about all that He has done for them. My intention in writing this is not to make anyone feel guilty for what they have or haven’t done in this area. I myself know that there is so much I haven’t done, and so much I still have to learn ahead of me about what it means to have compassion like Jesus, who came to earth and went out in search of desperate and vulnerable people who needed Him.
Our world needs Jesus. I pray for those reading this, that you would experience afresh how much God loves you and how delighted and excited He is about how He has and will continue to use you to reveal who He is to others. I pray that we as God’s Church would continue to grow in the boldness and compassion that we need to be field workers for Jesus and His Kingdom, instead of shying away from the pain and needs we see around us.
