When we consider the vast number of people who have never heard the good news, reaching them seems to be a daunting task. After all, what can one do to affect real change across the earth?

In Matthew 9, when Jesus saw the crowds of people, His first move was not to do something, but to pray:

“When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he 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,’” (Mt. 9:36-38, emphasis added).

Reaching the whole world with the gospel was God’s mission from the beginning. He is the One with enough compassion and resources to reach every people group on earth. Despite not needing our help, He delights in inviting us into His business, and the first and most powerful step is through prayer. Oswald Chambers wrote, “Prayer doesn’t prepare us for the work, prayer is the work.”

Building a habit of prayer for the nations can take many forms. You might set an alarm to pray for a few minutes each day or incorporate it into mealtime prayer. You could take a neighborhood prayer walk every Tuesday afternoon and invite others along or start a prayer group at your church. You might decide to pause and pray as current events come up in daily news or conversation. All of these can aid to incorporate learning more about unreached people groups and inviting others into these prayer habits.

While it is sometimes difficult to see the effects of prayer, consider how prayer has already impacted the world. Immediately after directing His disciples to pray, Jesus sent them out to preach the good news (Mt 10, Luke 10). Over two thousand years later, thousands of people groups all over the world have been reached and continue to spread the good news. Let us faithfully pray to God, who does immeasurably more than we ask or imagine (Eph. 3:20), to let His kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven (Mt 6:10), across every nation and tribe and people and language (Rev. 7:9) . . . until all have heard.