It is important to have a close relationship with God, just as students feel connected to their teachers and trust them with their concerns regarding family life. God delights when we come to Him with everything that is on our hearts and cherishes the time to connect with us. There is no prayer request too big or too small for God, and this facet of our relationship gives us a space to draw close to Him, trust Him, and experience His presence and work in our lives and classrooms.

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Prayercast: Lord Of New Beginnings, Holy Spirit Led Interactions, And Wisdom For Lock-down Procedures In Schools

Prayer Of Adoration

Adoration. Abba Father, we praise you as King David did and proclaim, “Oh Lord God, we praise your name forever and ever. Yours is the mighty power and glory and victory and majesty. Everything in the heavens and earth is yours, oh Lord, and this is your kingdom. We adore you for being in control of everything. Riches and honor come from you alone and you are the ruler of all mankind. Your hand controls power and might and it is at your discretion that men are made great and given strength.”

Oh our God, we thank you and praise your glorious name. Abba, the heavens declare your glory and the sky above proclaims your handiwork. The holy angels and saints in heaven continually praise and worship you, and tonight, we add our voices to theirs. The sky shows your infinite power, creativity, wisdom, beauty and so much more.

Who is like you, oh Lord? Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in places, working wonders? Oh, Heavenly Father, we praise you, for you are compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness. Your love is holy, perfect, eternal, infinite, and yet so intimate. We who have been born again of the spirit, not of blood, nor the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but of God, have experienced your compassionate grace. We have experienced your mercy and grace every day in schools, in classrooms, at home, and all the places we come and go.

You are always faithful, even when we are not. You love us perfectly and lavishly, even when we are disobedient and unfaithful. You are the way maker, and you always give us a way to escape when we are being tempted so that we can endure it. Oh, Lord Jesus, we adore you and praise you. You are supreme and you are faithful to all your promises. For all the promises of God in Jesus, you, Lord, a yes and in you. Amen.

Jesus, you are the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. By you, all things were created in heaven and on earth. Visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominion or rulers, authorities, all things were created through you, Jesus, and for you, and you are before all things. In you, Jesus, all things hold together. You, oh our Lord, are the head of the body for church. Jesus, you are the beginning, the firstborn from the dead. For in you, Jesus, all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell. We lift up our voices to the King of the Ages, immortal and invisible, the only God to you to be glory and honor forever and ever. In Jesus Christ’s name, we pray. Amen.

Abba, the heavens declare Your glory, and the sky above proclaims Your handiwork. Share on X

Prayer Of Confession

From Psalm 32, “Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord does not count against him and in whose spirit is no deceit. When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night, your hand was heavy upon me. My strength was sapped as in the heat of summer, then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,’ and you forgave the guilt of my sin. Therefore, let everyone who is godly pray to you while you may be found. Surely when the mighty waters rise, they will not reach him. Oh Lord, you are my hiding place. You will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance.”

Merciful Father, we thank you for showing us mercy by not giving us what we deserve, which is death, the very wages of sin. Instead, you show mercy to us and give us grace, undeserved, holy, and loving grace. Thank you, Father. You see it all and nothing is kept hidden from your eyes, so we come now and openly confess our sins to you. The times today when we sat in judgment of our students, of our coworkers, of our family members, people we don’t even know. Forgive us, Lord, for playing your part. You are the sole judge and deliverer, not us. So often we forget you are with us. Now we say with Job, “But you know the way that I take when you have tested me. I will come forth as gold.”

Forgive us, Lord, for not speaking to parents in truth and love, for not holding spirit-led conversations with families and for only reaching out to parents and caregivers when there’s a problem with a student and not sharing praise reports and good news about their child. Forgive us for making assumptions about parents and home situations based only on what we see and external evidence. Forgive us for judging just from kids’ attitudes when we haven’t had conversations and found out the facts. Forgive us, oh God, for not getting on our knees and praying first before we voice complaints against our coworkers and administrators. Oh, Lord God, thank you for delivering us. You are our redeemer and our gracious, merciful savior. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.

Prayer Of Thankfulness

Prayer of thankfulness. It’s the start of a new school year, Lord, and I thank you for a new season. I give thanks for the opportunity to meet new students and their families at back-to-school nights and open houses and to begin building a positive new relationship with them. Thank you, Lord, for the opportunity to show love and wonder in these new relationships, for the opportunity to develop trust built on love for the students, common goals for growth, shared laughter and joy, comforted concerns and sorrows, and through opportunities of integrity exemplified and appropriate routines and boundaries for respect and growth to occur.

I thank you for the living word and the spirit that guides us in the interaction with these families. I praise you in helping teachers discern the academic, the physical, and the spiritual needs of the students and the families. I thank you for calling educators, admin and staff out to be on the front lines of the spiritual battle over our most precious, our most innocent spirits, the spirits of our children.

What an honor you have bestowed upon us. I thank you for our purpose as educators and our hearts to serve. I thank you for our educators’ families who support us emotionally, physically and spiritually so we can pour all we can into the lives of these children. I thank you for our gifts and our talents and for the anointing you put on our lives. Thank you for your anointing. Thank you for your power and your presence in our lives that is like the oil that makes everything run smoothly.

Thank you, Lord, for Your power and presence in our lives. That is like the oil that makes everything run smoothly. Share on X

Thank you, Lord, for well well-thought-out out, professional development and lockdown and safety procedures that have been created by schools and talented law enforcement personnel. I give thanks for the wisdom that safety personnel share with us and the opportunity to practice best practices in safety protocol. Lord, overall, I thank you. I thank you for being our almighty God, our benevolent father, our great protector who knows the number of our days, who has set us to a magnificent purpose, who has sacrificed your son to save us for an eternity in your perfect and powerful presence. Amen.

Prayer Of Supplication

Father, we come to you with thanksgiving and praise because you have granted us another opportunity to start this school year with new excitement, new beginnings, new attitudes and new perspectives. Some of us have been able to loop with our students and families from last year or over the years and some of us with new students in new positions, new buildings, or even teaching new subjects.

You are the Lord of new beginnings and we pray that as we invite parents and family members into our classrooms and schools, that we will be led by your Holy Spirit. We pray that our interactions with the students and the families during back-to-school nights, open houses, parent-teacher meetings, IEP and 504 meetings would be times of team building with families. We pray that your Holy Spirit would give us the words, give us the strategies, give us the ideas, and give us the tools that we need to help the parents and families be at peace when they think about their children being in our classrooms.

We pray that we will clearly communicate that we want to work with the families as a team to help their children succeed not only in school but in life. Father, we pray for the family members of teachers. You know, the hours and hours that teachers spend away from the classroom, working on lessons, completing professional development, talking with parents, writing report cards, grading papers, and the list goes on and on. You know the sacrifices spouses and children of teachers make in order that these work, work-related tasks are completed.

We pray for relationships to be made stronger through better communication, through making time for recreation, through making time for praying together, through making time for worshiping you together. We pray for teachers who are caring for and infirmed family members. We pray that you give them the strength and the stamina needed to provide care for their loved ones and perform all the duties required for their jobs. We pray that they trust you and know that your grace is sufficient.

We pray for relationships to be made stronger through better communication and making time for recreation, praying together, and worshiping You together. Share on X

We pray that as school districts conduct lockdown drills, students and staff members will not be fearful. We pray that during these drills, followers of Christ would be calm and that the peace of God would be evident. Father, we pray that practicing these drills will help administrators, staff, students, and parents be mindful of the importance of preparedness.

Father, we thank you that we can come to you and pray for the safety of students and staff of our schools. As we follow you, we proclaim that when we pass through the waters, you will be with us, Lord. When we pass through the rivers, they will not overflow us. When we walk through the fire, we will not be burned, nor will the flames scorch us. We thank you that you put a hedge of protection around us, against intruders in our buildings and against those who are under the influence of evil. Lord, we give you praise because we have confidence that we have prayed according to your will and that you have heard all these petitions and supplications. We can say that we know that we have what we have asked of you. Amen.