I could never be a farmer. I have enormous respect for those who work on the land but I’m not made of the kind of stuff it takes to run a farm.
Farmers are dependent on conditions completely out of their control and if the conditions aren’t right, there’s no harvest. Devastating. I can’t imagine how tough it would be to put in all the work and end up with nothing.
On the other hand I’m wondering how soul destroying it would be to put in all the work, see a bumper crop grow, and then see it rot in the ground or on the tree because you don’t have the workers to harvest the produce.
After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them on ahead of him, two by two, into every town and place where he himself was about to go. And he said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest. – Luke 10:1-2 ESV
Luke’s Gospel tells us that the harvest is plentiful but there aren’t enough workers to bring it in. Now that’s really devastating.
As I was cycling to work this morning I started wondering why the labourers are so few. Why don’t we work alongside God to bring in the harvest? Why aren’t we introducing more people to Jesus?
I’m wondering if it’s our belief about how big the harvest really is. Do we truly believe that the harvest is plentiful? Do we trust the scriptures when we’re told that it’s not a ‘harvest problem’, it’s a ‘labourers problem’?
If we read widely online and keep an eye on the media we can get the impression that fewer and fewer people are interested in spiritual matters and that even those interested in some kind of spirituality certainly don’t want anything to do with Jesus, yet Jesus says that the harvest is plentiful. Was that only the situation in Jesus’ time?
If we don’t really believe that the harvest in plentiful we’re not going to even wander out into the field. We just don’t see the point. We’re defeated before we begin. Unless we believe that there’s harvesting to be done, and that there is plenty to be harvested, we’ll be completely ineffective as a labourer.
Has Satan fooled us into thinking that there is no harvest? Is that why we’re being so ineffective? Are we going to continue believing his lie or are we siding with Jesus when he tells us that the harvest is plentiful?
Examine your own thoughts on the harvest and share your thoughts in the comments section of this post.
We may need to repent of the belief that there is little or no harvest. Pray that God will radically change your perception of the harvest and that he will plant in you an urgency to get involved in his plans for this world, starting with your neighbourhood.
It’s time to pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest and to be bold enough to ask if we are the labourers that need to attend to the harvest.
Monday, September 6th, 2010, 9:26 am | 
Faith | 
RSS feed
Comments and pings are currently closed.
September 6, 2010 at 12:59 pm
I have always thought it was about mindset. When I go out thinking people want to know about Jesus, I find people wanting to know about Jesus. For me it is like a salesman not really believing in his product or expecting sales…the sales don’t come. I find that if I live a good life and be open about being a Christian, people come to me and ask questions. As a result they get Bibles, tracts and prayer for. More often than not they accept Christ.
The harvest is there and the Holy Spirit is always preparing hearts to receive Christ. We just have to live like it is true.
September 6, 2010 at 5:27 pm
I read this post before going out to pick up kids from school and on the drive found my thoughts connect with the post… I was thinking of ‘casting a net’ as in fishing and Jesus saying He would make fishers of men. That time on the lake when Jesus told the chaps (Simon and co) to go back out and let down the nets – they had already been fishing for hours with no success. The place this story and the passage above are the same is that they went WHERE HE SENT THEM and did AS HE BID them. I think there’s a lot of man-made ministry effort which will never reap a harvest of souls but instead just keeps everyone ever-so- busy. And dare I say it – busy ‘sowing’ plastic seed which will only ever be just that.
Trackbacks
September 8, 2010 at 9:31 pm