If God had His way with your schedule, what would your day look like? What would be included? What would be omitted? God has an ordained plan for each day of your life that He wants to reveal to you. Unfortunately, we often get caught up in the “busyness” and challenges of the day and miss that quiet whisper of God telling us to slow down or shift our plans. To hear from the Lord, we need to create space in our day to listen for His voice. We need to be still so we can experience His presence in the midst of the countless decisions we make about our time each day. If we truly want to make the most of our time, we need to give time with God top priority in our schedules.
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Prayercast: Apathy, Resignation/Defeat At End Of The School Year In Students/Staff And Finishing Strong Against Negative Self-fulfilling Prophecy
Welcome, teachers and educators, to the Prayercast. We have educators from different parts of the country gathered together to seek God and to pray for you. Their prayers follow the ACTS prayer model, which is an acronym for Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, and Supplication. This prayer model helps to focus our hearts on who God is and what He has done before we turn our hearts to ask Him for His continued work.
You may want to try this model yourself to open up your conversation with God, to help you feel more comfortable in talking with God freely and also resting in silence with him. As you listen and pray along with our sisters, may the grace and love of our Lord Jesus Christ and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
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Prayer of Adoration
Adoration. Hallelujah, salvation and glory, honor and power unto the Lord our God. For the Lord our God is mighty. The Lord our God is omnipotent. The Lord our God, He is wonderful. All praises be to the King of kings and Lord of lords. Dear God, there is no one like you, glorious and wonderful. Awesome. Who compares with you among gods? Who compares with you in power, in holy majesty? You are our protector, provider, and deliverer.
Lord, with your mighty hand, you parted the Red Sea and let the children of Israel to safety and defeated their enemies. Lord, as the school year moves toward the end, we believe you to part the bureaucracy of accountability, responsibility, and requirements that attempt to drown teachers 24/7 and lead Christian educators to overcome and reach the shores of well-being. Thank you for performing great wonders in our lives, classrooms, and school buildings.
Dear Heavenly Father, we adore you because you are the one true living God. You create this world and everything in it. You created us in your image and put breath in our lungs. With our voice, we will proclaim your name. Lord, overall, let everything that has breath praise you. Thank you for showing us your goodness and everything you’ve made. Thank you for the presence of your Holy Spirit in our lives.
Your word says in Ephesians 4:6, “You are overall in all and living through all.” We know you will always be with us surrounding us with your love. You are glorious, wonderful, and merciful. We as teachers, professors, administrators, counselors, and all school support staff come to the altar to give God praise and honor in the name of God.
Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Come, let us bow down and worship. Let us kneel before the Lord our maker, for He is our God and we are the people of his pastor, the flock under his care, as the students are to their teachers. For you, God has the ability to get the glory throughout the school building.
God of grace, we worship you and your living presence in us. Dear Lord God, there is no one like you. You make the wind blow and the rainfall. You bring us comfort when we are feeling sad. You bring us healing to those who are sick and free those who are experiencing mental anguish. You are the God of mighty acts. We love you, Lord. Our strength. The Lord is our rock, our fortress, and our deliverer in whom we take refuge, our shield and the horn of our salvation.
Lord, you are the daily stronghold of Christian educators in a morally weak world. Abba Father, you are the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. You are our Creator and counselor guiding us daily to make wise decisions. Lord, you are our comforter in sorrow, pain, or distress. We praise you for drawing near to us when we draw near to you.
You are Eloroy, the God who sees us. You are eternal God. You are our heavenly father and the father of the fatherless. How great you are, God, and your faithfulness day in and day out. You are a holy God, yet you made a way for us to approach you. We praise you for being our helper and your Holy Spirit’s conviction, correction, and protection of our lives.
You are invisible, but we see you with eyes of faith. You are Jehovah God and Jehovah Jireh, the one who provides all our needs. We praise you as Jehovah Rafa, our God who heals and forbids Jehovah Ra, our faithful shepherd. With our whole heart, we praise you, God. You are Messiah, the soon and coming Lord. You are omnipotent. You know all things. You are omnipotent. You are everywhere at all times.
We praise You for being our helper and for Your Holy Spirit's conviction, correction, and protection of our lives. You are invisible but we see You with eyes of faith. Click To TweetWe love that you are our peace and the high priest who became our redeemer and sacrifice forever. You died to set us free. You rose again and gave us victory over death. No longer are we enslaved in sin. You are our salvation, our rescuer, and our refuge. You give us hope within. We praise you because you are worthy and true. You are our teacher. Your understanding and wisdom are beyond finite minds. Yet, you promise wisdom to us when we ask. You are the way the truth and the light. You know the number of hairs on our head and you are always thinking of us. All praise to you, Lord. How excellent is your name. In the name of Jesus, we give you praise. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Prayer of Confession 1 John 1-9, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Father God, we come to your throne today with this prayer of confessions. Dear Lord, we know that we are sinners. We know that we are only made right through the blood of Jesus. Today, we confess our sins. We take 30 seconds now to confess our sins to you.
God, we don’t always do the things that we know to do, the things that are righteous, lovely, and holy. At times, we allow our flesh, emotions, circumstances, and other things to cloud our minds. We will fully disobey you. Only by your grace, love, and mercy can we be forgiven of these things, Father. Thank you, God. We don’t always keep our eyes, ears, and mouths guarded. At times, we love to see, hear, and speak about gossip in all kinds of drama. We allow frustration to sharpen our words against others and weaken our love towards them.
We allow our ears to be filled with wicked and vile things that don’t serve to bring us closer to you and help us to fellowship with other believers but do the exact opposite. Father God, we don’t always submit ourselves to you in a way that you want us to do things and live. We create in our hearts our plans and don’t seek you as often as we should. We praise you because you continue to guide us and allow us to come back into your arms when we deviate and go astray.
We confess, Father God, that we don’t always guard our minds and our hearts. We can hold grudges, mistakes, and other vice against others. We use these to justify our actions to harbor unforgiveness or even as a reason not to fellowship with them or do what you have asked us to do, Father. We confess that in all areas, we need to be renewed by our minds.
Your word says in Romans 12:2, “Not be conformed to this world but to be transformed by the renewal of your minds.” Father God, we repent for how we have tried to be like this world, assimilating to his customs, thought patterns, and heart postures. Now, we submit and recommit ourselves to you, Father God. We ask you to transform our hearts and align them with your word, will, and way. These things we ask and thank you in advance for in the mighty name of your son, Jesus. Amen.
Prayer of Thanksgiving
Prayer of Thanksgiving. Dear Lord of great wisdom, thank you for your instruction for living our lives as your people. You have given us so much in your word of life. Make us hungry for this bread, which is what truly satisfies and is always living and active. Lord, we thank you for inspiring the writers of the Bible so that we can come to you through it each day, and learn your ways, and gain knowledge of your character.
You have given us so much in Your Word of Life. Make us hungry for this bread, which is what truly satisfies. Click To TweetThank you, Father God, that we have this holy book of love and instructions of knowledge and truth. We praise you and bless you. Thank you for this gift. Help us, O God, to live by what we have learned from you just as we expect our students to grow and succeed in the knowledge we are teaching them each day. You, the master teacher, desire for us, the pure spiritual milk that will nourish and bring us to full maturity and faith.
Thank you, gracious God, for always bringing us higher towards you and for refining and disciplining us with joyfulness and mercy. You are a kind and generous father. We thank you. Oh God, thank you for giving us the strength to perceive each day in our schools, especially at this time of the year. Thank you for reminding us not to grow weary of doing good. For in due season, we will reap if we do not give up.
Lord, help us to get out of the way and give the holy spirit the opportunity to display the fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. What school cannot benefit from these gifts? Thank you for them and thank you that there is no law against such things. Let all that we say and do be for your glory. We thank you for your eternal presence with us on our campuses and in our classrooms. In your precious and holy name, Jesus, we pray. Amen.
Prayer of Supplication
Prayer of Supplication. Father, we thank you that we can come to you and pray for teachers, students, staff members, parents, and caregivers regarding the spirit of apathy. In your words, you address apathy as a state of mind that is neither hot nor cold, but lukewarm. You tell us in your word that you wish that we were either hot or cold. When we are lukewarm, you say that it is distasteful to you.
Lord, during this final term of the school year, we desire to be pleasing in your sight. We want to be on fire and burn for you. We want to shine for you. We want to wake up each morning with an expectation that you will do great and mighty things in the lives of our students. You will do great and mighty things in the lives of our colleagues and you will do great and mighty things in our lives.
We pray that we will be like Jeremiah. We will have to declare your good news and great and mighty deeds or else our hearts will become like burning fire. We will feel that fire within our bones. We will not be able to contain it. Father, we pray that as ambassadors of your kingdom, we will not give into the temptation of resignation and defeat at the end of the year. By your grace and empowerment, we make the choice to think about whatever is true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and praiseworthy.
By your grace and empowerment, we choose to recognize that you, Lord, are about to do something new. Even now it is coming. We choose to see it, Lord. You, Lord, declare that you will make a way in the wilderness and streams in the desert. Finally, Father, we pray that we finish strong and refuse to focus on defeatist and negative reports. We refuse to give in and give up. We choose to call to you and we know you will answer us and tell us great and unsearchable things we do not know.
You are the creator of the universe and you are able to give us new teaching strategies, new ways to modify behaviors, and different words to say that will spark hope in the heart of a child. We cry out to you, Lord because we trust that you can change impossible situations. We refuse to live in despair, defeat, fear, or fear of failure.
We know that you have not given us a spirit of fear but of power, love, and self-control. You have called us to be strong and courageous. You have told us to not be afraid or discouraged. We know that when we wait on you, Lord, you will renew our strength. We will mount up with wings like eagles. We will run and not grow weary. We will walk and not faint. We choose to trust you, and we choose to finish strong.
In closing, I pray, Ephesians 1:18-19, “I ask that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so that you may know the hope of his calling, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe.” Amen.