Lessons from God- Ask

Each month we get to take a full Day with the Lord, one of the perks of being in full-time ministry! This wednesday going into it I realized I just really needed rest. We've been going pretty nonstop since moving to Nishi-Waseda so I hadn't noticed how worn out I was getting, both spiritually and physically. As always the Lord met me right where I was at and provided real rest for my soul (along with a two hour nap). He takes good care of me :)

I've started reading through the gospel of Matthew as a continuation on from the Old Testament minor prophets. For four days I just re-read the Sermon on the Mount and wrote down my impressionis each time around. It was enlightening to see how they changed each time through, something different always struck me or stuck out more prominently. The word of the Lord really is alive and active!

In Matthew 9 Jesus speaks one of the most famous "missionary calling" lines in the Bible. In verses 37 and 38 he says, "the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field." For the first time ever I recognized the imperative in this short passage. Usually the Great Commission from Matthew 28 is seen as the utmost command to all believers, the command to go to the ends of the earth with the gospel. But here we see a second one given before the command to go. It is the command to ask, to pray, to hold the Lord of the harvest to his promises.

I was personally struck by this "new" command because of my specific situation. Backing up a bit, I am a proud graduate of UCLA and was involved in Cru in college. UCLA's Cru has a partnership with the ministry in Japan, meaning they are committed to sending students and staff to Japan to do ministry. That being said I am one of only a handful of Bruins to go on a summer missions trip to Japan in the past four years and the only stinter to go for about the same amount of time. These stats aren't to toot my own horn, but to show the great need for people and the great calling I have to ask for more to be sent. There is a great sense of personal responsibility in asking the Lord to provide more laborers because I see firsthand the incredible spiritual need here. God was gracious to bring me this far, I need to be faithful in answering his call to ask that others might be able to come as well. And I don't ask for myself, that I would feel more at home doing ministry amongst familiar faces. I ask so that more Japanese students would have the chance to know someone who passionately loves Jesus. I ask so God's heart for his people, for the nations, might be professed more boldly than I can do on my own.

All this being said I want to challenge you to start asking more of our heavenly father. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus tells his disciples to ask for it will be given to them. He tells them God is a father who delights in giving his children good gifts when they ask him. As Christ-followers we should be claiming these promises of provision boldly, asking the Lord of the harvest to meet the need for more laborers. He can and he will.

Bible, journal, jasmine tea and worship playlist

Narrow is the road that leads to life

Jasmine dragon phoenix pearl tea