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30 Ways to Pray for Missionaries

30 ways to pray for missionaries

By Elaine Helms

1. Focus on God
Pray for missionaries to stay focused on God and His plans above all else. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you (Matthew 6:33).

2. Faithful Bible study
Pray for missionaries to spend much time in the Word and ask God to give them discernment. Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who doesn’t need to be ashamed, correctly teaching the word of truth (2 Timothy 2:15).

3. Confession and repentance
Pray for missionaries to regularly seek examination by God and to repent from any errors that have crept into their lives. Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my concerns. See if there is any offensive way in me; lead me in the everlasting way (Psalm 139:23-24).

4. Humility
Pray for missionaries to have a spirit of humility and to willingly ask God for wisdom in carrying out their assignment. Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives to all generously and without criticizing, and it will be given to him (James 1:5).

5. Purity
Pray for missionaries to be so renewed by God’s Word that no sin will have dominion over them. Make my steps steady through Your promise; don’t let sin dominate me  (Psalm 119:133).

6. Boldness
Pray for boldness in the missionaries when they share the gospel or preach. Pray also for me, that the message may be given to me when I open my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel (Ephesians 6:19).

7. Rest
Ask God to help missionaries recognize their need for weekly rest away from ministry responsibilities. He said to them, ‘Come away by yourselves to a remote place and rest a while’ (Mark 6:31).

8. Guard the treasure
Pray for missionaries to stay focused on the gospel of Jesus Christ and not be distracted by issues of the day. Hold on to the pattern of sound teaching that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. Guard, through the Holy Spirit who lives in us, that good thing entrusted to you (2 Timothy 1:13-14).

9. Give glory to God
Ask God to empower missionaries to point people to Jesus and not seek undue recognition for themselves. In the same way, let your light shine before men, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven (Matthew 5:16).

10. Dependence on God
Pray for missionaries to model a life of dependence on God. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not rely on your own understanding; think about Him in all your ways, and he will guide you on the right paths (Proverbs 3:5-6).

11. Gracious speech
Ask God to give missionaries the grace to know how to respond to each person. Your speech should always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you should answer each person (Colossians 4:6).

12. Spirit of unity
Pray for a spirit of unity as missionaries work together and with other ministry partners. Now may the God of endurance and encouragement grant you agreement with one another according to Christ Jesus (Romans 15:5).

13. Resist temptation
Pray for missionaries to be quick to take the escape God provides when temptation sneaks up on them. God is faithful and He will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation He will also provide a way of escape, so that you are able to bear it (1 Corinthians 10:13b).

14. Retreat with God
Pray for missionaries to take personal prayer retreats to get their direction from Him. The Lord God has given Me the tongue of those who are instructed to know how to sustain the weary with a word…He awakens My ear to listen like those being instructed (Isaiah 50:4).

15. Stand firm
Pray for missionaries to stand firm under affliction and to look forward to eternal glory. For our momentary light affliction is producing for us an absolutely incomparable eternal weight of glory (2 Corinthians 4:17).

16. Daily prayer
Ask God to help missionaries protect their time for prayer and personal meditation in God’s Word. But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the preaching ministry (Acts 6:4).

17. Devotion to God
Pray for missionaries to maintain their devotion to Christ. But I fear that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your minds may be corrupted from a complete and pure devotion to Christ (2 Corinthians 11:3).

18. Hear God
Ask God to teach missionaries to hear His voice and follow Him. The sheep follow him because they recognize his voice (John 10:4).

19. Boast in the Lord
Pray for missionaries to be quick to give God the credit. So the one who boasts must boast in the Lord (2 Corinthians 10:17).

20. Direction from God
Pray for missionaries to get their direction from the Lord only. I am the Lord your God, who teaches you for [your] benefit, who leads you in the way you should go (Isaiah 48:17).

21. Peace
Pray for missionaries to give all their anxious thoughts to God and rest in His peace. Don’t worry about anything, but, in everything through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses every thought, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:6-7).

22. Prayer support
Pray for missionaries to enlist personal prayer support and ask God to call faithful intercessors to respond. So Peter was kept in prison, but prayer was being made earnestly to God for him by the church (Acts 12:5).

23. Strong marriages
Pray for marriages of missionaries to be strong and healthy. Husbands, in the same way, live with your wives with understanding of their weaker nature yet showing them honor as co-heirs of the grace of life, so that your prayers will not be hindered (1 Peter 3:7).

24. Eyes to see like Jesus
Ask God to give missionaries eyes to see as He sees and empower them to love the unlovely, the rejected and the outcasts as Jesus did. Man does not see what the Lord sees, for man sees what is visible, but the Lord sees the heart (1 Samuel 16:7b).

25. Express love
Pray for missionaries to model loving God completely and others as themselves. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength (Mark 12:30).

26. Hunger for God
Ask God to give missionaries a hunger and thirst for Him and His word. But solid food is for the mature—for those whose senses have been trained to distinguish between good and evil (Hebrews 5:14).

27. Persistence
Pray for endurance, stamina and pacing for missionaries to insure long-term, fruitful ministry. I pursue as my goal the prize promised by God’s heavenly call in Christ Jesus (Philippians 3:14).

28. Team spirit
Ask God to build strong teams among missionaries working together so that He gets the glory. So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth . . . for we are God’s co-workers . . . (1 Corinthians 3:7-9).

29. Obedience
Pray for missionaries to love and obey God, and to be known for their dependability to obey regardless of outside pressure. If you love Me, you will keep My commandments (John 14:15).

30. Sacrifice of holy living
Ask God to empower missionaries to be healthy in mind, body and spirit. ...I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind... (Romans 12:1-2).

Elaine Helms is Prayer & Spiritual Awakening manager at the North American Mission Board.