Think of each and every child in your classroom: what piece of God’s heart sits there as the children take their seats? Seeing children as pieces of God’s heart is such a powerful and humbling vision. The call to teach is a sacred calling, and this sacredness flows from the connection our gift has to children. God cherishes His children, and in caring for them, we care for Him. As we ground our classrooms in the priceless value of His children, let us also be reminded of our own eternal value. We have been blessed with the vocation to teach God’s children, and this is an invitation to partner with God in a miraculous way! How dearly God must love us to entrust us with His precious children! As you support each student in their specific areas of need, be reminded that you are not just serving “the least of these”—you are ministering to God Himself.
Please join Teachers Who Pray (TWP) as we continue to pray intentional prayers for teachers.
Using the Adoration Confession Thanksgiving Supplication (ACTS) Prayer Model, this week’s Supplication prayers will focus on teachers and assistants who serve special needs students and the needs of the receptionists at the front desk and security at the front door.
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Listen to the podcast here
Prayercast: For Special Needs Educators, Receptionists, And Security Personnel
Welcome, teachers and educators. 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 asking 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 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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Introduction
Welcome to the show. Thank you for joining us. We are now going to begin our prayer using the ACTS Model.
Father God, you are the beginning and the end. You know the plans that you have for us and we know that they are plans to prosper us and not to harm us to give us hope in the future. Though we don’t always see what you’re doing and how you’re working, we know that you are. We see you in our lives and in times that you have guided us and led us along paths of righteousness and downed your path for our lives.
Prayer Of Adoration
We praise you for forgiving us and for when we are disobedient, continuing to guide us. You are mighty. You have already defeated the enemy and we stand in that victory with you. It is already done and we have already won. You have defeated sickness, poverty, depression, demonic forces and so much more. You said the last enemy to be defeated is death and we are committed to standing on your word and believing in everything that you say because you are not a man that you should lie. Your word is the truth.
You are matchless. There is nobody greater and nobody like you. You are our strong tower. We run to you and we are safe. We cling to you amid joy, trials, pain, anger, and fear. We lift our eyes at the hills and our help comes from you, Lord. We see you. You are the same God who parted the Red Sea. Lord, why should we fear other humans or the enemy? What can the devil do to us that you cannot reverse, restore, or destroy? Nothing.
Lord, why should we fear other humans or the enemy? What can the devil do to us that You cannot reverse, restore, or destroy? Nothing. Share on XYou are great. We focus on who you are, and we look not to our feelings but what we know you can do and what you have done. Who you have been and you do not change. You see us. You have counted the number of hairs on our head. You dress the lilies and care for the sparrow, s how much more do you care for us? We submit to you and do not allow the enemy to come in and make us believe you to be anything other than who you are. You stay the same. Help us to make time to communicate with you, focus on you and fellowship with you so that the enemy cannot fool us. In Jesus’ mighty name, amen.
Prayer Of Confession
Hallelujah. Praise your name, Lord, our God. Thank you for the blessings and grace you have extended to us. Thank you for keeping us safe from all hurt, harm and danger, seen and unseen. Please forgive us for our wrongdoings and help us to be better Christian teachers. Lord, we confess your word is a lamp for our choices and serves as a guiding light on our journey of life.
Every part of scripture is useful in one way or another, showing us truth, exposing our rebellion, correcting our mistakes, and training us to live God’s way. Through the word, we are put together and shaped up for the task God has for us. Lord, we are sanctified, set apart, and consecrated for a holy purpose because of your word.
We confess we are complete in you, whose power extends over everything. We confess we are alive in Christ. We confess we have the mind of Christ. We confess we have the peace of God that surpasses all understanding. We confess the spirit of God lives in us and is greater than the enemy in the world. We confess we have received the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Jesus Christ.
We confess we have received the power of the Holy Spirit who does miraculous things through us. We confess authority and power over the enemy in this world. We confess we are merciful. We do not judge others and we forgive quickly. We confess in all circumstances. We live by faith in God and extinguish all flaming darts and attacks of the enemy.
We confess we can do whatever we need to do in life through Christ Jesus, who gives us strength. We confess we are chosen by God, who called us out of darkness, of sin, and into the life of Christ so we can proclaim the excellence and greatness of God. We confess being born again, spiritually transformed, renewed and set apart for God’s purpose through the living and everlasting Word of God.
We confess we are God’s workmanship created in Christ to do good, works that have been prepared for us to do. We confess when we hear God’s word, we do what it says and we are blessed in all our actions. We confess we are the head and not the tail. We only go up and not down in life as we trust and obey God. We confess we are chosen by God, forgiven and justified through Christ.
We confess that we are the head and not the tail. We only go up, not down, in life as we trust and obey God. We confess we are chosen by God and are forgiven and justified through Christ. Share on XWe have a compassionate heart, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. We confess our life is rooted in our faith in Christ and we are overflowing with thanksgiving for all God has done for us. We confess we are called to live a holy life by the grace of God and to clear God’s praise in the world. We confess healing and wholeness in Jesus. We confess healing and wholeness in Jesus.
We confess we are greatly loved by God. We humbly submit ourselves to God, causing the devil to flee from us because we resist him in the name of Jesus. We press on each day to fulfill God’s plan for our life because we live to please God. We are not ruled by fear because the Holy Spirit lives in us and gives us power, love, and self-control. In Jesus’ name, we confess all the promises of God, which are yes. Amen.
Prayer Of Thanksgiving
Dear Heavenly Father, we come to you to give you thanks. We give thanks and shout with joy to you, Lord, along with all the earth. We worship you, Lord, with gladness and come before you with singing and with joy. We acknowledge that you, our Lord, our God, you made us and we are yours. We are your people, the sheep of your pasture. We enter your gates with thanksgiving. We go into your courts with praise.
We give thanks to you and praise your name, for you, O Lord, are good. Your unfailing love continues forever and your faithfulness continues to each generation. Lord, we thank you for each of our students. We thank you for placing them in our classrooms and in our lives. Lord, we thank you that we can pray for our students. We thank you that we can teach our students and we can know and love each and every one of them.
We thank you for each of the students who have given us and the students who have been an answer to our prayers. When we pray to be more loving, you sent us students to help us practice being more loving. When we pray to be able to use divine wisdom, you send us students with difficult situations that need solutions that only you can provide. Lord, you have led us and guided us each step of the way during the school year. For that, we are grateful.
Lord, we thank you for our school buildings. We thank you for the surrounding neighborhoods. We thank you for having strategically placed us where we teach. We thank you for our colleagues. We thank you for the relationships we are developing with coworkers and fellow educators who have become and are becoming our friends.
We thank you that we can pray for our colleagues. We thank you that we can work alongside them and that you know and love each and every one of them. Lord, we thank you for our supervisors, department heads, instructional coaches, and administrators. We thank you that you handpicked them as the people who have authority in our lives.
We thank you that you have encouraged us to pray and to intercede and give thanksgiving on behalf of those you have placed in authority over our lives. We thank you that you know and love our supervisors and you want all the people to be saved. You want them to have a knowledge of the truth. Lord, we thank you that you sent your son as our one mediator between God and mankind. We thank you that he gave himself as a ransom for us all. Thank you, Lord. Amen.
Prayer Of Supplication
Dear God of hope, you are who we look to for encouragement and instruction. You are a God of endurance who will help us when we are weary and weak. In fact, you tell us in your word that you will sustain us. You ask us in Isaiah, “Why do you complain, O Jacob? Why do you say, Israel, ‘My way is hidden from the Lord. My cause is disregarded by my God.’ Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God. The Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary. His understanding no one can fathom.”
He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall, but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not be faint. Thank you, Almighty One, that you do not need to rest. Thank you that your resources are endless. Thank you that when we hope and trust and wait on you, we will rise to new heights in our classrooms. Hallelujah.
Father, we lift to you, special education teachers who, day in and day out, instruct their uniquely created children with patience and love. Continue to give them extraordinary insights into how each of their students learn. Provide them, Lord, with the latest information and research on brain development, communication, and how to best teach diverse learners.
Father, we ask you to help them soar on your wind, on your energy, and on your strength. Lord, in their weakness and weariness, help them to look to you for renewal. O Lord of gentleness and love, please be in the hands of those special education and classroom assistants who physically care for the needs of diverse learners. Give them, Lord God, gentleness and tenderness with these most vulnerable students.
When these assistants are frustrated and don’t think they can carry on, gift them with refreshments, timely breaks, and encouragement from colleagues. We thank you, God, for these generous workers who are doing some of the most challenging and frustrating work in our schools. We also ask you to be with school clerks and receptionists.
Please, Father, show them how to always be welcoming and gracious as they speak with parents and community members. Give them cheerfulness and joy in their work as they are on the front lines of communication for their schools. We thank you for all the unappreciated and unnoticed things they do for students and staff every day. Lord, we know that you see them and are using them to be your hands and feet in schools.
Finally, Lord, we ask that you also work through security staff as they are often the very first people that students come in contact with each morning. May their smiles and greetings to students exhibit your love. Father, we thank you that they are in schools to help protect students. Give them an extra sense when there is danger, Lord. Give them wisdom about what to do, Lord. In schools where security staff is lacking, Lord, please provide for them. Lord, we ask all these things, trusting, hoping, and waiting on You, Lord, because you are God. In your name, Jesus, we pray this. Amen.