In Matthew 9:38, Jesus exhorted His disciples to “pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” That’s a good thing for us to continue to pray for. But what does it look like to labor in the Lord’s harvest? Well, Jesus demonstrates such behavior in the previous verses. In Matthew 9:35-36, we find five things Jesus did. Those verses read:
“And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.”
The first thing to notice is that Jesus went. He didn’t sit and wait for others to come to Him—He went to work. If we want to work for the Lord, we must be willing to go and proactively seek opportunities to labor in the Lord’s harvest.