Praying for our Children as Missionaries

2016 Prayer Initiative May: Praying for our Children as Missionaries

Parents often discover the focus of prayers for their children needs adjustment. When you first get the news you’re expecting, Christ-followers begin to pray, first for a healthy pregnancy and birth for mother and child. Even before birth we pray Scripture prayers, praying the children will “grow and become strong in spirit, filled with wisdom; and Your grace be upon them... May they increase in wisdom and stature, finding favor with God and man.” (Luke 2:40, 52); and that they come to “know the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make them wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.”(2 Timothy 3:15) Perhaps no prayer is more important than they know the saving grace of the gospel. We pray as parents we “bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord.” (Ephesians 6:4) We began early praying for our girls’ future husbands, that they would love Jesus and love them as He loves the church (Ephesians 5:25). 

Then came the teenage years. Perhaps your prayers reached an intensity level you never thought possible. We prayed, “the God of peace, sanctify them completely; and may their whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Thessalonians 5:23) As they make important decisions about friends, with whom to accept a ride, where to hang out, church, school, career, and spouse; the list keeps growing, we pray. As our children take those first steps of adulthood, we realized there is no expiration date on children, we still pray for them, as much as, and maybe more, than before. They launch a career, purchase their first home, and find their place of service to our Lord and His church – all matters of prayer. They bless us with grandchildren, and we pray for them as parents. 

Recently, while attending the Missionary Parent Fellowship at the International Learning Center in Richmond, we were challenged by Larry and Sharon Pumpelly (missionaries from Ohio) to develop a prayer strategy for our missionary children. Our daughter, son-in-law and three grandchildren serve an unreached people group with the International Mission Board. Our other daughter, son-in-law and two grandchildren serve as missionaries with unreached neighbors, family, and friends, on the job, and with our local church – also on mission. She and her husband are leading a trip to support her sister and family on the field. So our prayer focus adjusts again. 

Using the adage, ‘prayer must be Scripture-led and Spirit-fed,’ again, we look to the Scriptures for guidance. D.A. Carson in his book Praying with Paul (Baker, 2014) [p. 186-201], outlines a strategy for praying for missionaries based on Romans 15:30-33. Understanding prayer is not like a good recipe: simply follow a set of mechanical directions and everything turns out right in the end; there are some essential elements of praying for those on mission found in these few verses. 

First, note the earnestness, urgency, and persistence that must characterize our praying. Paul passionately asked, ‘I beg you… strive together with me in prayers to God for me. ’He speaks of praying like the strenuous discipline of an athlete. 

“That is why Samuel Zwemer, groundbreaking missionary to Muslim lands, could utter his famous saying, ‘Prayer is the gymnasium of the soul.’ … Paul understands real praying to include an element of struggle, discipline, work, spiritual agonizing against the dark powers of evil.” (Carson, p. 188) 

Praying this way takes the spiritual battle seriously and puts on the whole armor of God (Ephesians 6:10-20). To be on mission is a declaration of war, and we must fight with spiritual weapons, primarily earnest, urgent, persistent prayer. (2 Corinthians 10:4-6) Note, not based on his authority or their strength, but ‘through the Lord Jesus Christ and through the love of the Spirit.’(Romans 15:30) 

Second, notice Paul’s prayer requests. He asked them to pray he would ‘be delivered from those in Judea who do not believe.’(v. 31) In many ways, when we are on mission, we are behind enemy lines, taking ground the enemy does not want to give up. Those of us who hold the spiritual rope of prayer need to remember the risk and pray for their safety. Paul also requests ‘that my service for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints.’ Even among underserved, unreached and unengaged people groups, June 2016 | Ohio Baptist Messenger | Page 5 

there will be believers. Some will be new believers that need to grow; others will be weary from the work or discouraged by persecution. Pray for the hard work of disciple-making, encouraging and equipping the saints for the work of ministry. (Ephesians 4:11-16) 

Lastly, pray for the vision to be refreshed and expanded. When Paul asked them to pray ‘that I may come to you with joy by the will of God, and may be refreshed together with you,’(v. 32) he was not just asking for a vacation. We learn in the background verses (Romans 15:14-29) he was traveling to Rome, on his way to Spain. His desire was to ‘preach the gospel, not where Christ was named, (so that) …those who have not heard shall understand.’(v. 20-21) In addition to praying for health and safety, the effective sharing of the gospel and disciple-making efforts, pray they keep before them the next step, the big picture. Missionaries often speak of ‘working themselves out of a job, ’being able to hand off the ministry when the time is right. They want more than just to get through another day, though it may feel that way at times. There are present challenges, but also new opportunities. They have a passion for the gospel to be shared with those who have not heard. 

“One of the constitutional enforcements of the gospel is prayer. Without prayer, the gospel can neither by preached effectively, promulgated faithfully, experienced in the heart, nor be practiced in the life. And for the very simple reason that by leaving prayer out of the catalogue of religious duties, we leave God out, and His work cannot progress without Him.” (E.M. Bounds quoted by Carson, p. 198) 

We must understand the importance of strategic, intentional, prayer support for the sake of the gospel. Jesus taught us when we see the overwhelming need for the gospel to pray for more laborers. (Matthew 9:36-38) We know the need to pray for church planting here, we must never neglect to pray for the harvest some of us will never see. There are around 11,500 people groups in the world (people groups have a common self-identity, based mostly on language and ethnicity). Over half of these people groups (around 6,800) are less than two percent Christian. Nearly half those, (roughly 3,200) do not have any Christians at all and are not being engaged in with the gospel in any way. “No Bible. No churches. No missionaries. No spiritual light.” (Kendrick, Stephen and Alex The Battle Plan for Prayer [Broadman & Holman, 2015] p. 215) Perspective: The world population is about seven billion, the U.S. is around 320 million, is less than five percent of the global population. God’s heart is for the nations. (Isaiah 56:7; 2 Peter 3:9) The fields are white for harvest. (John 4:35) 

Chuck Lawless challenges us to think and pray Great Commission: 

“Many of us have more Bibles in our home than we have human beings. Meanwhile, only about 550 languages of the world’s 7000 languages have the whole Bible in that language. About 1800 languages still have none of the Bible translated. A single 30-minute sermon is more time in the Word than 3 billion+ people in the world have had engaging the Word in their entire lifetime. …All of us are recipients of somebody else’s Great Commission obedience. How can we not do the same for others?” (See more at chucklawless.com) 

Paul’s rock-solid conviction that the Father fulfills His purposes in response to the prayers of His people motivates him to pray often for the saints, and urge them to pray for him. He understands that if his dreams for the gospel are to be realized, he is utterly dependent on the Father. 

Andrew Fuller helped found the Baptist Missionary Society in 1782. The society’s first missionary William Carey left everything for India with Dr. John Thomas, totally dependent on the Father and the prayers of others. Before departing he told Fuller and others: 

“Our undertaking to India really appeared to me, on its commencement, to be somewhat like a few men, who were deliberating about the importance of penetrating into a deep mine, which had never before been explored, we had no one to guide us; and while we were deliberating, Carey, as it were, said, ‘Well, I will go down, if you will hold the rope.’” (John Piper, Andrew Fuller: I Will Go Down If You Will Hold the Rope! Desiring God, p. 4-5) 

We must not fail to hold the rope.