Friday, May 9 marks two years of working to make disciples of Jesus who live on mission at national WMU. Last year I wrote an article about what I learned the first year of working here and praying for our missionaries. I’m pleased to report that I’m still learning about missions after two years of praying for our gospel partners serving through the International Mission Board and North American Mission Board.

You can join me in the practice of praying for our missionaries by signing up here.

1. After praying for our missionaries for two years, I have learned the Psalms better. 

At Southern Seminary, Dr. Donald Whitney taught me the practice of praying through the Psalms (which I highly recommend). This practice involves separating the 150 Psalms into 5 Psalms of the day. Each month has 30 days, which means each day “receives” 5 psalms. The first day of the month involves praying through Psalm 1, 31, 61, 91, and 121. The second day of the month uses Psalm 2, 32, 62, 92, and 122. You can follow the pattern from here.  

Each day, the missionary prayer calendar comes to my inbox and I use the psalms of the day to pray for them. For 24 months, on the second day of the month, I have now prayed for our missionaries using Psalm 32. As you can imagine, I have become well acquainted with this passage. Naturally, this has resulted in a greater understanding of God’s Word. 

There is simply not enough time to note every observation I have made from Psalm 32 the past two years, but I will provide three to prove my point.

First, David tells us in verse 1 that God covering your sin is a blessing. Thus, in verse 5 David says he did not cover his sin but, instead, confessed it. I would not have noticed the repetition of “covering sin” without praying through the missionary prayer calendar.

Second, I noticed in verses 6 and 7 that confession of sin is a hiding place, a place of preservation, and a place of victory for the Christian. Verses 1–5 teach us that confessing our sin to God is a blessing. Therefore, as verse 6 begins, Christians can expect to find God to be our hiding place, our preservation, and our victory when we confess our sin to him. We will not find him to be grumpy, dismissive, or unloving toward us. 

And, finally, I have come to appreciate the relationship between the first seven verses of this psalm and last four verses. After David teaches us about the blessing of confessing our sins, he moves to God’s voice in verse 8. God says, “I will instruct you … I will counsel you …” It occurred to me one day while praying that instruction and counsel can only be experienced after confession of sin. Those who are humble enough to say “I was wrong” are able to hear the Lord’s instruction. That one realization has informed the way I’ve prayed for missionaries who have birthdays on the second day of the month. 

Lord, help my brothers and sisters humble themselves before you today. Make them aware, even painfully aware if necessary, of the ways they have fallen short of your glory. May they meet with you today and receive the instruction and counsel they have been needing about their marriages, parenting, and their ministry of evangelism and discipleship.

2. After praying for our missionaries for two years, I understand the reality of enemies better.

If you read through the Psalms enough, you will notice that enemies are a big deal. In fact, in the English Standard Version of Psalms, I was able to find 78 uses of the words of enemy and enemies. I have read through the Bible dozens of times at this point in my life and God’s Word finally got it through my thick skull this past year that I have enemies as well. 

Most days I’m tempted to believe that I live at peace in a peaceful world. That is what Satan, my enemy, wants me to believe. God’s Word, especially the Psalms, make it abundantly clear that life is spiritual warfare.

Praying for our missionaries this past year has heightened my sense of the spiritual battle around us. The Psalms teach me every day to pray against the enemies of our missionaries. As I have consistently prayed against the temptations of their flesh, the obstacles of the world, and the work of Satan, I have even caught myself fighting spiritual battles against temptation by telling myself, “I’m dead to that sin and alive to God.”

3. After praying for our missionaries for two years, my capacity for gospel partnerships has grown.

Multiple times over the past twelve months, I have been praying through the prayer calendar and recognized a name. I have noticed names from a Send Relief center that WMU partnered with during Christmas in August. I have noticed names of fellow students from seminary.

And because I have been exposed to their ministry previously, I knew better how to pray for them.

The practice of praying for missions using the prayer calendar over the past two years has been so formative for me. I cannot imagine being a Southern Baptist and not using the prayer calendar. I am willing to say that our cooperation — especially our sending and supporting missionaries through our mission boards — depends on commitment to the prayer calendar. 

I hope you will join me over the next twelve months.

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by Zach Pratt, WMU Marketing Specialist