Gordon Watts

Gordon Watts once said that prayer is laying down tracks for the will of God to run on.

The chain of prayer is (1) initiated by God, (2) prayed by men, and (3) the work accomplished is in accordance with God's will.

Whatever the Lord has in His heart to do, He first calls the disciples to pray. Only after they have prayed TO the Lord of harvest to send forth laborers are they sent out by Jesus (Matt. 9.38 ).

Incidently, notice that it is the CITIES and VILLAGES (v.35) that Jesus travels through, and the tremendous need of these cities and villages that must be covered, so He sends His disciples forth.

As we pray for a certain thing, God is preparing us to be willing to do the very same thing. Jesus asked the disciples to pray that the Lord of the harvest would send forth laborers. After a while, those who were actually sent out were the disciples themselves.

If God can not change the one who prays, how can He change the one who is prayed for? How can we ever expect God to send out others if we ourselves are unprepared for being sent out too?