Every day. Every day, you walk through the doors of the school and into your classroom. You walk in with your dreams, disillusionment, joys, and heartaches. You hug your students at the door; you see your colleagues in a meeting; you connect with parents after school. You walk past people in your school each day and wonder if anyone sees you. The real you. The you that is hurting; the you that is processing; the you that is trying—with everything in your soul, trying. You may be wishing for someone at school to truly see you, or you may be desperately trying to hide your true self from others because you actually feel too broken to teach. But you cannot hide from God. No one is invisible to Him. God saw you before you were born; God saw the path of your life; God sees you now in this moment. And God sees all of you—your beauty and your pain. Let Him meet you exactly where you are. He put His light in you and He wants to help you let it shine! (Matthew 5:14-16)

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Listen to the podcast here

 

Prayercast: Summer Plans – Students Will Have Constructive Activities To Do, Food And Make Good/Healthy Choices/Decisions

Childcare/Camps, Family Vacations, Etc.

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 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.

Prayer Of Adoration

Greetings, and welcome to Teachers Who Pray National Prayer Call. We will start with our prayer of Adoration.

An ABC Prayer for Adoration. Lord God, you are active on our behalf. Father, you are a bright morning star. Lord Jesus, you are the cleanser of all things. Father God, you are our day spring. You are enduringly strong. You are a fountain of living waters. Father God, you are God of all flesh. Jesus, you are the head of the church, and your love is inexhaustible. You are Lord of Jerusalem. You are key to everything. You are limitless and a mender of the broken.

You are new today, Jesus, and you are the opener of our eyes. Father God, you are a place of safety and you quiet us with your love. Jesus, you are resplendent and you are the stability of our times. Jesus, you are the teacher of teachers, the underwriter of all things. You are a visionary. You are the way, the truth, and the life. You are our expert. You are yesterday, today, and tomorrow and you are the God of Zion.

Lord, from Psalm 145, we read, the Lord upholds all who are falling and raises up all who are bowed down. Father God, hold us up when we feel like we are falling. You raise up all who are humble and wait for you to exalt them. Help us to be humble and wait for you, even when we feel hopeless. And Lord God, at this time of the year, we can feel hopeless.

When we see the lack of progress in our students and we feel like we haven’t done enough, Lord God, help us to be humble, help us to wait on your timing. You know, in the blink of an eye, Lord, things can change because you can do all things. You can make all things possible for us and our students, Lord. We need you right now, Lord, to finish out this year and to finish it strong through your power, Lord God.

You say the eyes of all who look at you will get the food in due season, your food, Lord. What you will provide us. Lord, you take care of our every single need and the needs of every living thing. You always come through, hallelujah. Lord, we know that you are the only one who satisfies. You open your hand and you satisfy the desire of every living thing.

We praise you, Lord God. Lord, give us the strength. Give us the patience. Give us everything we need. This last month or couple months of school, Lord, we are looking to you, Lord. We are crying out to you. We need you, Lord. Our students need you, Lord. We know that you don’t need our prayers for schools, Lord.

What you need is people’s hearts for you, Lord God. Turn hearts to you, Lord God. We adore you. We love you and we want all our students every staff member in our schools, Lord, to come to salvation in you, Lord, to know that you are the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. It’s in your holy name, your matchless name, Lord Jesus, we pray this prayer. Amen.

Prayer Of Confession

Prayer of Confession. Dear Heavenly Father, we come to you tonight to confess our sins to each other and to pray for each other so that we may be healed. Your word tells us that the prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective. We acknowledge our sins to you because you are faithful and just, and you will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

Your word tells us that when we conceal our sins, we do not prosper, but when we do confess and renounce our sins, we find mercy. When we become aware that we are guilty of missing the mark, we must confess in what ways we have sinned. Father, these are just a few of the areas we will confess. We pray that you forgive us and help us repent of the times that we did not think of others more than we thought of ourselves.

We pray that you forgive us and help us repent of the times that we looked out for our own interests instead of those of the students and the other people we serve as educators. We pray that you forgive us and help us repent of the times that we actively chose to ignore the admonition that we must have the same attitude as Christ.

We pray that you forgive us and help us repent of the times that we looked at the here and now instead of meditating on your word that says surely there is a hereafter and we can be assured that our hope will not be deferred. We pray that You forgive us and help us repent of the times that we put our trust in our own skills, abilities, relationships with the administration, training, college degrees, and professional development, instead of putting our trust in You, Lord.

We pray that you forgive us and help us repent of the times that we chose to fret and be fearful instead of having faith in the fact that you are our heavenly father who watches out for us. We pray that you forgive us and help us repent of the times that we fear what parents or even students will say when we need to dole out consequences for times that students do not meet expectations, break rules or sin against you.

We pray that you forgive us and help us repent of the times our supervisors have given us tasks for instructional improvement and modifications that will help students and in our hearts or our minds, we say that they don’t know what they’re talking about and I refuse to do that or I don’t know how to do that, nor do I want to learn how to do that. We pray that you forgive us and help us repent of those times when we have been impatient, unloving, unkind, or reluctant to offer grace to our students, coworkers, or supervisors.

We pray that you forgive us and help us repent of times we chose to lean on our understanding instead of acknowledging you and calling out to you when we were confused, stuck, or frustrated. We pray that you forgive us and help us repent of the times we gave into a spirit of fear when we were timid or intimidated instead of standing on the fact that you have given us a spirit of power, love, and a sound mind.

Father, we come near to you and we know that you will come near to us. We wash our hands of these sins and we ask for help to purify our hearts and help us choose not to be double-minded. We rejoice that as we repent and turn to you, Lord, that you take away our sins and that we can experience a time of refreshing in you. We praise you, Lord Jesus, and we pray in your name. Amen.

Prayer Of Thanksgiving

Prayer of Thanksgiving. God, we come before you with hearts overflowing with gratitude. You are the source of every blessing in our lives, and we are humbled by your love. Thank you for the countless blessings you have poured into our lives, big and small. Lord, we are grateful for the blessings that are not only material provisions but eternal blessings of faith and hope. Lord, we thank you and worship only you. We tell the nations how glorious you are and what you have done.

We speak every word in gratitude and do everything with a thankful heart. We will keep a watchful eye and with sincere conviction, we will pray and give thanksgiving regarding all events which occur in our daily practice. Whatever we do in word or deed, we do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God, the Father through him. Thank you, Lord, for the grace and mercy that has allowed us to come this far into the school year.

Lord, renew our strength. Lord, we affirm the following. Thank you, God, for ordaining us to be teachers. Thank you for entrusting us with the responsibility and opportunity to teach. As teachers, we thank you for the power to educate, inspire, challenge, comfort, reassure, and encourage our students. Lord, we thank you for the enormous influence that you have given us to enlighten the hearts and minds of our students.

God, we thank you that through our students, we possess the ability to change the world. Lord, at times we lack wisdom. Thank you for generously giving us the discernment to lead our classroom and the intelligence to make instructional decisions to plan our lessons effectively. Thank you, Lord, for the insight on how to deal with conflicts in our classroom among the students, and for the perception to handle matters that may come up with colleagues, parents, or administrators.

Lord, thank you for teachers who use their gift of teaching to teach with their whole hearts. Thank you for giving Christian teachers a spirit of understanding and compassion toward all those we encounter to execute the duties of our job. Thank you for anointing teachers with the strength and endurance to perform our many tasks.

Lord, we thank you for the creativity, work ethic, commitment, drive, and passion of teachers. We thank you for the lives we have changed and transformed for the countless ways Christian teachers have taught by the example set by Jesus and let the light of faith shine brightly through us for all to see. Lord, thank you for helping us to exhibit unconditional love for our students, regardless of what behaviors they demonstrate.

Lord, thank you for helping us to not allow situations to determine our mood but to dwell in the joy that comes from being rooted and grounded in you. Thank you, God, that we are slow to speak and quick to hear. Thank you, Lord, that we think before we react and operate as servants and ambassadors of you. Thank you, Lord, that we can flow with gentleness every day. Thank you, Lord, for allowing us to see our students through your eyes. Reminding us that each child is precious, unique, and carefully designed by you and for seeing them as human beings who need unconditional love, support, and encouragement.

Thank you, Lord, for allowing us to see our students through Your eyes, reminding us that each child is precious, unique, and carefully designed by You, and for seeing them as human beings who need unconditional love, support, and encouragement. Click To Tweet

Thank you, God, for helping us to believe in the positive growth of our students and faith that through you we can be teachers you created us to be. Lord God, thank you for strengthening us as we stand in front of our students to take the focus off of us and place it on you. Thank you, Lord, for your spirit that dwells on the inside of us, whereby we see things through the lens of the word of God, which helps to renew our minds daily. In the matchless, mighty, and magnificent name of Jesus, we give thanks. Amen.

Prayer Of Supplication

Prayer of Supplication. Father God, we come boldly to your throne room today with this prayer of supplication. We know that whatever we ask in your will and then in the name of Jesus will be given to us. We know that it is done when we speak to mountains and tell them to be cast into the sea and do not doubt in our hearts they are cast into the sea.

Father God, we come boldly to you today lifting these things and thanking you in advance for these prayers being answered. We thank you right now for the finished work. Father God today we come to you lifting up to you these students. We thank you in advance for students having constructive activities to do over the summer.

We thank you in advance for these activities helping them walk in their purpose. We know that there is nothing impossible for you, and we are grateful that the things that these children will choose and desire to be a part of will lead both them and their families and their friends and those around them closer to you.

We pray that those who already know you will not turn from you but be the light to others, as Christ is so they will imitate you. We thank you for parents having ways to send their children to summer camps, art camps, writing workshops, et cetera. We thank you that this will be a season of children leaning on you and seeing the gifts that you have given them in full effect and using those gifts to serve you in learning how to do that.

We thank you right now for providing each student and their families with food this summer. We thank you that all needs are met and that you are our provider. You are not out of blessings, you never run out, you are the god of abundance. You have already sent the resources. They are here on the earth. Thank you for allowing us to bless others, and I pray that they receive all of these blessings.

We pray for students and their families to make good, healthy, and prosperous choices. We pray for an end to generational curses that might cause some to make unhealthy and poor decisions, Father God. We speak of beginnings to generational blessings. We speak good wisdom and good judgment over these families now. Let this be a productive, prosperous, and blessed summer in Jesus’ mighty name.

We pray for students and their families to make good, healthy, and prosperous choices. Click To Tweet

We speak to this being a safe summer. No longer are we hearing about these children being murdered or hurt, Father God. We speak things as they should be, not as they are. Help our unbelief as we pray these things to you. Yes, the world is in its last days, but we are citizens of your kingdom forevermore. We thank you in advance and praise you that it is done, standing on faith and in the authority you have given us in the name of your son Jesus, amen.