Praying for the School Year
With the start of the school year, we cannot take for granted that it will be a good year. We must dependently and desperately seek Jesus on behalf of our staff, students, and community. It is easy to say we’re praying, but sometimes we fail to follow through and actually pray. Even when we pause to pray, we may miss the heart of God if we do not guide our prayers through the Word. When we pray specifically, God answers specifically and changes us in order to use us as part of His answer. May we be faithful to pray for our schools now and through the year.
Here are some specific Scriptural suggestions of how we can pray together today!
Safety. God, please protect our students and staff from Satan, our dark world, and from evil. Please protect our schools from predators so that they may be identified and punished before harm comes to others. Keep our school staff and students safe from themselves, from accidents as they travel, and from injury as they play.
Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
—Matthew 6:13
Holiness. Jesus, we confess, that in a world full of scandals, our nation, state, county, and schools have been guilty in your eyes. Let those within our schools live, act, speak, think, & feel in ways that please you, showing your love to everyone around them. Thank you for blessing us with yourself and for giving our community such an amazing school system.
But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving.
—Ephesians 5:3-4
Love. Lord, in a world dominated by self-love, may our schools’ staff and students practice self-denying love in your image, prioritizing the needs of others over their own. May they be selfless and sacrificial, loving you first, and kindly loving the outcast and downcast.
Walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. … Walk as children of light (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true).
—Ephesians 5:2, 8-9
Truth. God, we live in a world that frames truth as subjective and changing. Help our children and adults to experience you as their Truth. Show them that just because it is in a textbook doesn't make it true. Father, make our teachers and students be truth-lovers and truth-speakers, to counter the many lies of the devil. Give them courage to do the right thing and strength to expose wrongdoing. May they learn your truth and be filled with your wisdom, applying and living out what they learn through their daily decisions.
Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. … Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret. … Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.
—Ephesians 5:6, 11-12, 15-16
Humility. Spirit, our lives are full of pride, forgive us. Please humble our teachers, assistants, workers, and learners that we may be reminded of our position in life compared with your knowledge, power, presence, and majesty. Help us all to think less often of ourselves and more highly and frequently of you!
Pray then like this: ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.’
—Matthew 6:9
Health. Father, we ask that our students and staff care for the bodies that you have given them. May they fill them with helpful food and avoid substances that harm them. Help them to exercise and enjoy the strengths and abilities you have given them.
Bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.
—1 Timothy 4:8
May we be more faithful thank God for our schools and to lift our schools in prayer to Him this next year!