Brethren, pray for us 1 Thess. 5:25 CLICK TITLE FOR AUDIO

Paul was as much a missionary as he was anything.  He asked the folks in Thessalonica to pray for him.  He said, Brethren pray for us.  This brings to mind that we need to be praying for our missionaries even more than we already do.  At this point I read a letter from one of our missionaries detailing how God was answering the prayers of some dear saint in the midst of a spiritual battle and simultaneously a spiritual opportunity.  God won a victory and the missionary attributes the victory in great part to the praying saints.  By your prayers:

You help the missionaries on the field – 2 Cor 1:11 – Paul said, “Ye also helping together by prayer for us…”  I believe that the great failure of missions today is attributable in part to the fact that the folks back home aren’t really laboring with the missionaries in prayer.  If we were, I believe that we would be hearing about more divine occurrences from more missionaries.

You help the missionaries to preach boldly – Eph 6:18-20 – Paul said, “Praying always… that I may open my mouth boldly.”  Paul had been beaten, whipped, stoned and imprisoned for his preaching.  After a while you could easily understand if he had decided to sugar coat his message to keep from suffering anymore.  He desired the prayers of the saints to keep his preaching bold.

You help to open the right doors – Col 4:3-4 – Paul said, “Praying also for us, that God would open unto us a door of utterance.”  Missionaries need opportunities to meet people and to preach the gospel.  God has to open doors on the field that many times are much more difficult than the doors he opens for us at home.  Like Paul said, “A great door and effectual is opened unto me, and there are many adversaries,” [1 Cor 16:9].

You help the word of God to have free course – 2 Thes 3:1 – Paul said, “Pray for us, that the word of the Lord may have free course, and be glorified.”  There are many unreasonable and wicked men who would love to stop the word of God, 2 Thes 3:2.  When we pray for the word to have free course, there are miraculous things that the Lord can do to glorify his words.  Remember what the Lord did in Kenya when a couple of missionaries were imprisoned over the distribution of the Chick tract, “Allah had no son.”  The Lord turned the tables on their accusers, released them from prison and magnified his word mightily because of the public attention given to this case.

You help the missionaries to live honestly
– Heb 13:18 – Paul said, “Pray for us: for we trust we have a good conscience, in all things willing to live honestly.”  We take it for granted that we can live quiet and peaceable lives in all godliness and honesty here.  That is often not the case on the field.  On the field, the missionaries may be inclined to bend the rules to get something done.  They need tremendous wisdom.  They need just the right contacts.  They need favor with the right men.  They need our help in prayer so that they can stand before God with a good conscience.  God has to work miracles on their behalf just to keep them on the field, in many cases.

Conclusion: Praying for missionaries on Wednesday nights in excellent.  However, we need to keep praying for them throughout the week.  It may be that the Lord will awaken you in the night or stop you in the middle of your day so that you can pray right then for a missionary.  Pray along these lines that you have seen in scripture and help these dear missionaries on the field.