Thank you for that excellent question, for servants of the Lord surely need help from other believers. I can think of FOUR ways we can help them.

1) PRAY for them! The Apostle Paul told the saints at Ephesus they should be “praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit…and FOR ME, that utterance may be given to me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak” (Ephesians 6:18-20). There may be a tendency to think of the Apostle Paul as a “super saint” who didn’t need the prayers of anyone, but he knew he was capable of avoiding persecution by “NOT preaching the gospel.” If Paul needed the prayers of the saints, every servant needs them as well. We see the power of prayer and its results for God’s servants in Acts 4:31, “And WHEN THEY HAD PRAYED, the place where they were assembled together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and THEY SPOKE THE WORD OF GOD WITH BOLDNESS.” Of course, we should also pray for God to bless the Word they speak (1 Corinthians 3:5-8), for them to be delivered from their enemies who would seek to silence them (Philippians 1:19-25; Acts 12:5-10), and for them to continue to honor Christ in everything they do (Hebrews 13:18).

2) SUPPORT them! In 1 Corinthians chapter 9 the Apostle Paul taught believers to give servants FINANCIAL SUPPORT, so they are free to serve the Lord full-time. I would encourage you to read verses 1-14. Here are a few of the key verses in that passage: “If we have sown spiritual things for you, is it a great thing if WE REAP YOUR MATERIAL THINGS…Do you not know that those who minister the holy things eat of the temple, and those who serve at the altar partake of the offerings of the altar? Even so the Lord has commanded that THOSE WHO PREACH THE GOSPEL SHOULD LIVE FROM THE GOSPEL” (verses 11, 13-14). I would also encourage you to read and meditate on Philippians 4:10-20 where the Apostle Paul thanks the saints for helping to meet his temporals needs through a financial gift. Listen to his words of gratefulness for their care for him: “I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at last your care for me has flourished again…Now you Philippians know also that in the beginning of the gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no church shared with me concerning giving and receiving but you only. For even in Thessalonica, you sent aid once and again for my necessities” (verses 10, 15-16). Paul was thankful for their loving ministry to him but he went on to say, “Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit that abounds to your account” (verse 17). Paul knew that their gifts to him were being recorded by God and that they will be amply rewarded for their “support to God’s servants.”

3) ASSIST them! In Romans 16:1-2 we read, “I commend to you Phoebe our sister, WHO IS A SERVANT of the church in Cenchrea, that you may receive her in the Lord in a manner worthy of the saints, and ASSIST HER in whatever business she has need of you; for indeed she has been a HELPER of many and of myself also.” This “assistance” surely included showing her “hospitality” while she was visiting Rome. Servants of the Lord often travel and how good it is when fellow-believers take them into their homes to give them free “room and board.” We see this practice brought out beautifully in 3 John 5-8, “Beloved, you do faithfully whatever you do for the brethren and for strangers, who have borne witness of your love before the church. If you send them forward on their journey in a manner worthy of God, you will do well, because they went forth for His name’s sake, taking nothing from the Gentiles. We therefore ought to receive such, that we may become fellow workers for the truth.” When we do ASSIST THEM by showing them hospitality (by taking them into our homes and sending them on their way with financial support), we are “fellow-workers for the truth”; in other words, we are actually “laboring with them by assisting them in their labors.” I believe this is what Paul had in mind when speaking of servants in 1 Corinthains 3:9, “For we are God’s fellow workers.”

4) VISIT them! In Paul’s last letter to Timothy, he wrote these words from a prison in Rome: “Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner. But share with me in the sufferings for the gospel according to the power of God….This you know, that all those in Asia have turned away from me…The Lord grant mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, for he often REFRESHED ME, and WAS NOT ASHAMED OF MY CHAIN; but when he arrived in Rome, he sought me out very zealously and found me. The Lord grant to him that he may find mercy from the Lord in that Day—and you know very well how many ways HE MINISTERED UNTO ME” (2 Timothy 1:8, 15-18). If any of God’s servants are ever arrested and imprisoned (as some are in Communist and Islamic countries), we should be willing to VISIT THEM and ENCOURAGE THEM. We should NOT be ashamed of their chain but be willing to share with them in the sufferings for the gospel.  (DO)  (622.3)