In my teenage years, older people talked about a popular dance move they did when they were teens. Before they verbally shared the dance, they would immediately move their hips back and forth to begin a very awkward moment teenagers dread. The moment older people twist body parts back and forth. Once the motion was in place, they instantly said, "This is called 'The Twist!'" leading to our Wonderfully Weird Command: Pray for Laborers.
You might be wondering why I associate "The Twist" with this command? It comes about because of where the teaching sits in all of Jesus' commands. This teaching turns things around for the faithful worker in Christ. Their prayers pivot from a priority of inward prayers to outward ones to draw laborers into the movement of Christ. This twist is a true sign a Christian is growing in the Faith and desires to develop a greater harvest for God. When this is not the case, the faith suffers through immaturity where people are indifferent about drawing people into the fold. It's compassionate mature prayer needed not more indifferent people sitting on the fence watching the few do all the work.
Jesus said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field (Matthew 9:37-38 [NIV])." I believe most know the few workers spoken of in these verses are Christians who work hard at growing in God's principles, practices, and performance to be more effective in the Faith. The few represent genuine workers growing in the Christian faith, whereas the "Plentiful Harvest" symbolizes inactive workers or Christians not growing, they have become stagnant. The honest and sincere workers produce the fruit of God's harvest and grow (Galatians 5:22-23), whereas the idle worker produces little or no fruit in their ignorance and inattention to God's crops.
One of the most incredible things that happen as we learn and apply Jesus's teachings is our prayer life grows. It rotates from simple children's prayers to mature authoritative outward prayers that bring other people to the faith. When the workers are few in God's harvest, persistent authoritative prayer is always the remedy to bring in genuine labors. Praying for laborers through outward prayer means we speak for God to others in what we have learned and have gained through being devoted to Jesus's teachings and faithfulness to his Way. Simply put, mature prayer uses God's wisdom He has given us to draw other people, laborers, into His harvest.
Friends, if you want a twist in your spiritual reality, it's imperative to continue to seek God's Kingdom through learning the ways of Jesus. Do the hard work of understanding them to get them into your soul. As they grow in who you are and what you do, God promises a turn in your walk with Him. A twist from not just speaking to God, but a twist where you, through wisdom, "get to" speak for God to others. Speak words of maturity to the workers who come into the harvest because of your loyalty to Jesus's Wonderfully Weird Command: Pray for Laborers.
Affectionately,