How to Pray for Missionaries:
A Day-by-Day Guide
Here’s a way to pray meaningfully for your missionaries every day, even when you don’t have new requests. By following this simple plan you can stay alert and keep from falling into a rut, ready for God to use you as you pray. Remember -- it really does make a difference whether you pray or not. God wants more than just the missionaries’ own prayers. Even Paul the Apostle was helped because of the prayers of many (2 Cor. 1:11). So keep at it. God will enrich your own life and accomplish great things in answer to your prayers.
Sunday: Spiritual Needs
Pray that God will make his Word fresh to your missionaries every day, that he will draw them to prayer and meet them in a special way. Ask the Lord to help them live and serve in the power of the Holy Spirit, not in their own strength. Pray that they will recognize their own sins and improper attitudes and confess these to God. They are involved in heavy spiritual warfare. Ask God to help
them use the weapons he provides. Ask him to continually renew their vision for the work.
Monday: Mental/Emotional Needs
Pray that your missionaries will have the wisdom and emotional strength to do their work well. Bible translators and their national coworkers need great insight to make God’s Word clear in the local culture and language. They need to
discover creative ways to communicate the gospel. Ask God to help them hold up under stress and isolation.
Tuesday: Social Needs
Pray for loving, supportive family relationships: husband-wife, parentchild, siblings. Ask God to give them warm, happy experiences. Pray that hardships will pull them together. Pray that single people will find rewarding friendships and contentment. As your missionaries serve in cross-cultural ministry, ask
God to give them a deep and genuine love for people and wisdom to know how to express it.
Wednesday: The Team
Pray that field administrators will make good decisions, provide wise counsel and be encouragers. Pray for unity and spiritual vitality in the organization. The field team depends on colleagues who serve in "home offices." They are a vital part of the whole team but their work is often difficult because people do not
view them as "real" missionaries. Ask God to meet their needs. Pray that all missionaries, wherever they serve, will have a servant attitude toward fellow workers and the local people.
Thursday: Physical Needs
Intercede for good health and for wise decisions concerning treatment of health problems. Ask God to protect them. Some missionaries have financial needs that add stress to their work load. Pray for adequate prayer and financial support. Pray that computers and other equipment would function properly.
Friday: The Home Team
Missionaries couldn’t serve without faithful friends and churches at home praying for them and providing necessary funds. Ask God to bless these important partners and give them great satisfaction and joy in their role. Pray for strong bonds and mutually helpful relationships between missionaries and the home team during field time and furloughs. Pray for great understandingof each others’ roles in the mission task.
Saturday: The People
Pray that God would prepare the people to receive his Word. Ask him to raise up spiritual leaders among local believers. Pray that new believers will feel responsible to reach out to family, friends, community and beyond. Ask the Lord for a deep moving of the Holy Spirit in every people group receiving God’s
Word. And don’t forget to pray for translators to go to places where people are still waiting for their first encounter with God’s Good News.
Reprinted from a Wycliffe Bible Translators pamphlet entitled "Prayer Tools For Far Away Friends."
Pray for Missionary Kids
Missionary children who serve with their families around the world have many challenges. They must learn to live in a different culture, some struggle to find friends, and teens often miss the support of a youth group. Coming to the U.S. on Home Ministry Assignment is difficult for them, and the transition to college in the U.S. can be lonely and stressful.
Pray for:
- Spiritual, physical and emotional well-being, protection from harm
- Smooth transition to international school, boarding school or back to the U.S. for college
- Uninterrupted study hours for homeschoolers
- Comfort as they long for extended family in the United States
- Cultural adjustment and language skills
- Desire and wisdom to share the gospel with non-believers
- New friends on the field and comfort as they miss those left behind
- God’s strength to resist godless circumstances and peer pressure
- Finances to attend school
- Close friendships and connection with local church while at college
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