Luke 10:1-3 (NIV) After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go. He told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves.”
Jesus had earlier sent the twelve out ahead of Him. But the work was getting more and more urgent the closer that He got to Jerusalem, and he needed His followers to pave the way for His own arrival in each town and village along His way.
This time He sent out seventy-two in pairs. He began by telling them to pray for more workers, as the available workers (the twelve) were too few to get to everyone that needed reaching. No sooner had He instructed them to pray, He informed them that they themselves were the answer to their own prayers. They were praying for more workers, so Jesus was sending them.
It is very often the case that the people praying to God for solutions are themselves the answer to their own prayers. We saw this earlier in the feeding of the five thousand: “Send the crowd away so they can…find food and lodging.” “You give them something to eat.” Luke 9:12-13a) We look at our own small resources and lack of power, and plead with God to do something about the situation. But if God is truly with us (an assumption we make in the first place when we pray to Him), then it is entirely likely that WE, empowered and supplied by God’s grace, are the solution to the problem we are praying about. Often what is needed is not someone praying for a bolt from the blue, but someone willing to pray, “Here I am. Send me.” (Isaiah 6:8b) “I will feed them with Your resources. I will pronounce healing for their bodies in Your power. I will command the demon to flee in Your authority. I will provide clothing for them from my excess. I will provide shelter for them in my spare room. I will buy them a tank of gas from the resources with which You have entrusted me.”
Father, this is true. In the realest sense possible, we, as Your people, have all been called to continue Jesus’ ministry, to go ahead of Him in our world to prepare the people for Him to enter their hearts, and to be His hands, His feet, His voice to all of those around us. To meet their needs in the same way that Jesus did, with the power and authority that He has instilled into our hearts. Help me to be bold and powerful in obeying Your call on my life, no matter where that call may take me. Here I am. Send me.