Going Beyond "God Bless the Missionary"

A friend of ours found the following on a missionary's blog and I thought it very applicable to us since we are on deputation for Africa...

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-written by an anonymous missionary


1. It is not necessary that you ask God to give us good health. The important thing is that He gives us the measure of health that will best glorify Him.

2. We do not want you to pray that God will give us an easy path on the mission field and remove obstacles. Rather pray that He gives strength and grace to overcome the difficult God-given obstacles in ministry.

3. It is not so important that you pray that God should bless our activities. Ask that He censor our activities, for it is easy for time and energy to be spent on second-best things.

4. Do not pray for us as though we lived on a higher plane. We can become lonely, discouraged, irritable, and impatient. We can do a lot of missionary work simply in the energy of the flesh. Pray that the love of Christ may constrain us in all that we do.

5. Pray that, like the Apostle Paul, we may be willing to deny ourselves in order to make our lives an example to the national believers. Sometimes this means forfeiting rights, privileges, and material conveniences we have taken for granted all our lives, but which can be stumbling blocks to missionary service.

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If the Lord would burden you to pray for our family as we are on deputation and, eventually, on the mission field, this is definitely the kind of prayer that we need - prayer that recognizes us as frail humans and beseeches God to use us in spite of our weaknesses for His glory.

(HT: Dave Flinck)