The Lord of the Harvest (Part I)

The Lord of the Harvest is looking for His laborers. On this Labor Day, we can ponder on the special laborers God is looking for!

Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd.  Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few.  Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.” Matthew 9:35-38

This past Saturday, we prayed and declared the above scripture at my church during our intercessory prayer time. I felt like the Lord had more to say about this scripture, so I listened! As He spoke to me, I decided to write the Monday’s devotional about it. Then yesterday, we happened to sing the song, “You are the Lord of the harvest”. I knew it was a confirmation of my devotional as I already had picked that title for my devotional.  

Jesus sets the example for the type of laborers God is looking for:

Jesus cared about people’s physical needs

Jesus ministered to the people on the highways and the byways of life. There was no discrimination/partiality as to which people group he reached or ministered to. Jesus understood man’s condition and his/her need for spiritual healing as well as physical healing. He didn’t get super spiritual with them; He didn’t make them feel bad about looking for physical healing. He didn’t expect them to just focus on their relationship with God. When the sick came to him, He healed them. The above scripture tells us that He actually healed every sickness and every disease among the people.

Jesus must have had enormous amount of work to do in healing every sick person. The scripture doesn’t state that the disciples helped Him out. Most likely He did most of the work by himself. Healing the sick would have been a huge need given the fact that the physicians in that time would not have had the knowledge or the resources to cure most ailments.

Jesus must have spent hours ministering to the physical needs. Healing the sick didn’t make him weary. Jesus never turned anyone away. This wasn’t a job for him, it was a burden because of his great love for the people.

Being a laborer is hard work which means when the excitement of the job is gone, the laborer still have more work to do.  We as laborers still do the work with the same intensity and desire as we first started. No one gets short-changed because they are at the end of the line or because we as laborers are tired. God’s field is not about our excitement level, but it is about the level of need and desperation in people’s lives. When we love and love people, we continue to labor in His field.

I will continue with this subject in the next devotional.