10 Ways to Actually Pray for Missionaries

 © freeimages.com

I gather that more books have been written on prayer than on any other topic in the Christian life. We Christians all know that it’s an extraordinary privilege we have - to call the God of the universe our Father, and approach his throne of grace confidently!! But I think we all struggle to pray as well. Why is that?

And off goes another book about prayer… Which I’m not going to write! I suppose there will be theological reasons why we don’t pray, emotional reasons, circumstantial reasons… I wonder if a surprisingly powerful factor might be quite practical reasons though. As Don Carson put it - we simply need to “plan to pray”.

One of the most significant books I’ve read on prayer is Carson’s masterpiece, A Call to Spiritual Reformation (IVP, 1992), which surveys some of the Apostle Paul’s prayers and what we can learn from them for our prayer lives. It totally transformed my approach to prayer when I read it 10 years ago, and I’m sure it would do the same again if I gave it a fresh read! Funnily enough though, along with all the epic theological elements in the book that had such a big impact on me, something that has stuck with me, as if I read it yesterday, is a most basic piece of practical advice, from the start of the book - “plan to pray”! It’s a simple but penetrating point. Carson elaborates:

“What we actually do reflects our highest priorities. That means we can proclaim our commitment to prayer until the cows come home, but unless we actually pray, our actions disown our words.” (p.19)

So. Dare I ask - what’s your plan? How will you pray for missionaries?

That obviously takes for granted that you want to pray for missionaries. I believe we should! I won’t try to persuade anyone now. Suffice it to say, the more we love and follow Jesus, whose parting words to his people on earth were, “Go and make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19), the more we’ll want to be part of that. Many are not called to go anywhere further than across the street, though such endeavours still ought to be backed prayerfully by others. Some are called to go further from home, and they certainly need the prayerful backing of others.

So, what’s your plan?

I’ve been really encouraged, since coming to the Gambia, when friends have told me how they pray for me. One friend wrote to me recently and, after assuring me that he is keeping me in his prayers, he added, “On Thursdays and Sundays FYI”. He’s got a plan! And I’m so grateful.

My goddaughter’s parents have a lovely book they’ve made for her with photographs of people to pray for, including me here. They’ve got a plan! And I’m so grateful.

Writing prayer letters is a funny old experience (as is writing a blog, really). Typing, typing, typing, sharing, sharing, sharing. “Is it worth it?? Will people actually pray?? Will people even read?? I trust that some do. I don’t want to write too much and bore people… Or do people actually want to hear more? Let me be succinct. But I need to explain and give a picture of things…” It’s not easy!

But the writing is (part of) my side of the bargain. The other side is people praying. And I know that’s not easy either! Hence this blog post. Because (here we are finally…) I thought it might be helpful to offer a few practical suggestions on how to actually pray for missionaries. Here you go - take or leave! Ten tips in no particular order:

1. Decide to spend a few minutes praying through any prayer email / letter immediately when you read it. 
2. Save up prayer emails / letters into a folder and schedule a fiercely guarded time into your diary each week to pray through them. N.B. Depending on the volume, storing them up like this can make for quite a tiring prayer session. If more than 5(?), I’d go for two separate slots. 
3. Stick up a world map on a wall, and add pins to mark where people are for whom you’ll pray. 
4. Then pick an activity that creates a pause in your day to pray for a different pin each time - e.g. as the water is boiling / coffee is brewing. 
5. Pray for people you know in different continents each day of the week. (Could be done with #3.) 
6. Use triggers. For example, whenever you see someone walking a dog, say a quick prayer for a missionary you know who has a dog (hint hint). Or I heard of someone who prayed for some missionaries every time she saw the same model of car that they had. 
7. Pick a memorable place that you pass regularly (a tube stop on your way to work / a park on your way to the shop) and decide to pray for a missionary every time you pass it. 
8. Accept that you can’t pray for everything and pick one thing to focus on from a particular prayer email / letter. Write it in a prayer diary (start one!). 
9. Use the PrayerMate app and customise it to however it best suits you. I recommend it highly. It requires a bit of effort to get used to, but many people find it pays off. 
10. Commit to meet regularly with some others who also know said missionary to pray for them - once a month / once a term / whenever. You could write them a note when you do so too - they’d love that! 

I currently benefit from doing three of the above. Why not pick two or three that help you?

“Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.” (Colossians 4:2)

Let’s plan to do so, and make it happen. Remember Carson’s words? “What we actually do reflects our highest priorities.” May God help you and me to plan and to pray.