Ask most Christians to pray for missionaries leaving for the field, and you’ll often hear variations on, “Lord, give them safe travel, luggage that arrives on time and intact, and good health.” At least, that’s been the experience of veteran WHM missionary Paul Leary.
Why these particular requests? One reason is that prayer tends to emerge from our perception of felt needs. We often don’t have the foggiest idea of how missionaries’ lives and ministries will play out. However, we do know that they are going far away, and many dangers may lurk between here and there. So we ask for safe travel and good health. But Paul, now WHM’s Overseas Director, has observed that though noble requests, perhaps they are not the most strategic. After all, choosing to step out in missions is fundamentally choosing to step out of our own comfort zone.
In search of how to pray for missionaries beyond “traveling mercies,” we asked a few of our longest-standing prayer warriors for some pointers:
Pray the Word of God into their lives and ministries.
This is the heart of spiritually battling on their behalf-going right into the throne room through the blood of Jesus, and asking him to use these missionaries to do what he's already promised to do. Some places to start: Follow the pattern of Paul’s bold prayers in Col 1:9-14, Eph 3:14&-20, and 1 Thess 3:11-13.
Ask the Spirit to help you sense their expressed and unexpressed needs.
Many of the missionaries are specific in their prayer letters about their needs, but there are times when you can "read between the lines" especially as you get to know the missionaries better with each communication. Attentive reading can turn getting the latest list of needs into a relationship, and makes prayer a time of "faith working through love" (Gal 5:6). Don't be afraid to pray about different possibilities or scenarios that come to mind just because they are not mentioned as specific requests. Let the Spirit lead as you bring these brothers and sisters before the Lord.
Connect prayer to part of your existing routine.
Prayer is most consistent when it's connected to an activity already in your schedule. This can be as simple as praying through the letter as you read it, when you first open your mail. Perhaps make it a habit to collect the prayer letters on the bookrest of a stationary bike or in your Bible. This way, when you exercise or read the Word, the prayer letters are there, both as a resource and a cue for prayer. And remember, it doesn't have to be lengthy to be effective. Just send up short, focused "arrows" of prayer.
Watch out though.
You can expect to be encouraged, blessed-and challenged as you begin to pray this way.
Feeling another's need helps break through the barrier of our own self-sufficiency.
Seasoned missionaries are keenly aware of the chasm between what they can do "on their own," and what they have to depend on God to do. We are no less dependent on him here in the "land of plenty." As we prayerfully enter into the lives of missionaries and those they serve, we become conscious of circumstances and needs beyond our own. This helps us turn from our self-sufficiency and realize how truly dependent we all are on God.
Asking for things only God can provide confronts our own unbelief.
Missionaries are bravely and knowingly leaving “safety” for a cause they believe is great enough to warrant the risk: to make Christ known in places where he is not. They are on a mission because they believe that Jesus is going to change the world and they want to be part of that. Seeing the gospel seep into every crevice of their life exposes the emptiness of the idols in our own. Is Jesus changing us, do we expect him to be changing our world, and are we joining him in doing that?
Praying for missionaries challenges our own gravitation toward the comfortable and familiar.
As we familiarize ourselves with the sacri-ficial lifestyle and missional mindset of our missionaries, we are challenged to take risks and make sacrifices in our own lives, for the sake of making our good God known and glorified.
As for the safety of our missionaries, it’s good to want them to be able to do their work well, and without impediment. But if we thought God’s chief concern was to keep them safe, then we would simply have them stay home. And that’s just the beauty of getting swept up into the Great Story. We are called into the sacrificial pattern of our hero, filled with love spilling over from Love Himself. In C.S. Lewis’ The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, Lucy asks about Aslan (the Christ figure), “is he safe?” Mr. Beaver answers, “Safe? Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good.”
