For this week’s Teachers Who Pray episode, we pray for more school supplies as education transitions even deeper to digital means and meaningful parent-teacher communication during report card pickup. We also pray for teachers and administrators to find new and effective ways to educate young people and better student behavior amid the rampant negativity and toxicity in social media.

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Listen to the podcast here

Prayercast: Teachers Who Pray Weekly Intentions: Report Card Pickup, Student Behavior, And School Supplies

Evening of prayer. We are teachers who pray. We’re going to be praying through adoration, confession, thanksgiving, and supplication. Our first prayer warrior who’s going to begin our prayer is Michele.

Father God, we come to You, praising You and thanking You for everything that You are. You are Alpha and Omega, beginning and end. You see everything. You know everything, Father God. You supply all good things. We thank You and acknowledge You as our provider, our source, and our waymaker. We see You as our promise keeper. You are faithful and just to keep Your promises to 1,000 generations. Everything that You’ve said shall come to pass out of Your mouth and in the mighty name of Your son, Jesus.

You are the covenant keeper. You’re faithful to us even when we are not faithful to You. You knew that we could not keep Your Word all the time, God, and You still love us to send Your one and only Son to protect us from going to Hell. To even bring us back into the fold and be with You, we honor You for that, God, for that love that sees past our faults, circumstances, and the hurt and still continues to shine through.

God is the permanent keeper. He is faithful to us even if we are not faithful to Him. Even though we cannot keep His word all the time, He still loves us enough to send His one and only Son to protect us. Click To Tweet

We thank You that we can leave all things in Your hands. You sustain us. We acknowledge You as our protector. We praise You and are in awe of You for protecting us from dangers seen and unseen. Those things that we thought were the horrible things that could have happened to us or the things that we thought were even good, You know better, Father God. We thank You for protecting us, whether we wanted You to or not because You are there for us.

We thank You that You are the comfort, consoling hand, and the voice that guides the broken-hearted. You are wonderful and You are love. You love us so much that even when we are not faithful to You, You still keep us and hold us in Your mighty right hand. It has shown in all the ways that You are good to us, Father God. We see over and over again in Your good, mighty, and true Word that You fill us up with hope, love, goodness, faithfulness, peace, joy, and patience, all the fruits of the spirit.

You model for us how we should be. You loved us enough and showed us the right way to live, Father God, so that we don’t have to be apart from You. We can be closer to You. Often, we take for granted what You have done for us. Though You are not mocked, You are slow to anger God. We thank You for being slow to anger. We thank You for being just that You don’t let wickedness and unrighteousness go unpunished, Father God. We love that You convict us, Father God, so that we know right from wrong. That is only out of Your love for us that You guide us and discipline us.

You are just. You are powerful. You are amazing and wonderful. You are wondrous. You never forsake us and never leave us. Your Word confirms over and over again who You are. We thank You for everything that You are to us. We thank You for being our Father. We can come to You. We can lay down at Your feet. We can be in whatever mood and still praise You, cry out to You, and everything, Father God. You love us enough that You see us as Your children. You’re not waiting or standing by to punish us or anything. We thank You that You see us as Your children. We thank You for everything that You are to us in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.

Confession. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. The truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Therefore, confess your sins to each other and pray for each other that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.

If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. The truth is not in us. But if we confess our sins, God forgives and cleanses us from all unrighteousness. Click To Tweet

We confess to God Almighty before our brothers and sisters that we have sinned in thought, word, and deed, and pray to God Almighty to have mercy on us and to forgive us. In humbleness and faith, we confess our sins to You, God. Loving God, we come to You with our confessions. Hear us, Lord. We confess we have gone astray. Guide us, Lord. We confess we often have loved You half-heartedly. Make us whole, Lord. We confess we find most of our strength in ourselves. Be our strength, Lord. We confess we’ve done so many things wrong. Forgive us, Lord.

We come to You, Lord, confessing openly what we have done. Merciful God, we humble ourselves in Your presence, confessing our unworthiness and our sinfulness in Your sight. We have broken Your holy law. We have not sought first Your kingdom and righteousness. We have been anxious and troubled about many things and have neglected the things that are part of the peace we receive from You.

Most gracious God, renew a right spirit within us. Heavenly Father, Your love for us is evident. Everywhere we look, we see proof of Your great care for us. Yet, when it comes to following You, we confess that we often don’t surrender our entire selves. We hold back portions of our lives that we would rather control instead of releasing them to Your loving care.

Have mercy on us, Lord. Forgive us for frequently saying one thing and doing another. May our words and actions line up. Eternal and glorious, God, You are merciful, kind, and forgiving. You hear us when we confess to You. We admit we do not focus on You with our whole heart, mind, soul, and strength. We neglect to rest our hearts and minds in You for we keep going in our own power and never stop. We do not stick fast to Your Word for we live by some of the words of our times like CNN, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. We give priority to many other commitments.

Father, forgive our sins and help us to walk in Your way. Gracious God, You called us to draw near, but we keep our distance. We are afraid of Your direction and discipline. We avoid honesty and confession. Father, help us trust in Your goodness and Your grace, believing that Your correction brings life and joy. May we live in the light of Your love that others might see and draw near to You. May Almighty God have mercy on us, pardon us, deliver us from our sins, and give us time to amend our lives. Lord, forgive our debts as we forgive our debtors. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Thanksgiving. God, one of Your names is Jehovah-Jireh because You are our provider. We come to You into Your presence with thanksgiving because You are a great God and our King. Lord, we thank You for the positions that You’ve put us in our schools to be Your ambassadors. We thank You for the unique gifts and talents You have given each one of us to further Your kingdom in our schools. God, our hearts are overflowing with gratitude for each and every child You have placed in our care. We are humbled that You have chosen us to bring Your love, peace, and joy to these most precious lives.

Lord, we thank You for all the teachers who don’t teach small ones or little ones. We thank You for the teachers who are teaching difficult middle school children, challenging high school children, and maturing college students. Lord, we give You thanks in all circumstances for this is Your will for us in Christ Jesus.

Father, we thank You for Your gift of prayer to us that we do not need to be worried about anything including our students, families, jobs, or health because with Thanksgiving, we can come to Your throne of grace and ask You for help at any time anywhere. What a gift that is. Lord, we thank You for all the times You renewed our strength. You provided the time and the resources. You sent others to assist and encourage us. You touched us with Your healing hand, Lord. Thank You, Lord Jesus. Thank You that You gave us words to show grace and mercy when we were at our wit’s end.

Lord, thank You for all the times You surprised us with unexpected joy in witnessing our students understand a new concept, discover their own creativity, meet a challenge, or finally complete an assignment. Thank You for letting us observe that. It’s all You, Lord God. Thank You that every single day, we get to walk into a place where learning happens, Lord.

Thank You, Lord, for the benefits that we receive because we are teachers. Lord, thank You that we have weekends off and extra time in the summer. Lord, thank You for the things we take for granted like our pensions or our paychecks. Lord, thank You for making a way for us in this profession and using us in mighty ways to make a difference for every child and every family.

Lord, thank You for giving us the words when we don’t know what to say to kids. When they ask those crazy questions, Lord, we don’t even have an answer, and somehow, You form the words in us, which is the right thing. You give us boldness. Thank You, Lord, for giving us the courage to say, “I don’t know,” or, “I’m sorry.”

Lord, thank You for forgiving us when we’re not prepared when we walk into the school building, not having any clue how the day’s going to go because we weren’t ready. Lord, thank You for forgiving us when we look at our colleagues and we judge them before we even take the log out of our own eye. Lord, because of all these things, because of Your goodness, because of Your everlasting graciousness, and because of Your unending generosity, we thank You. We need You, Lord God, and we love You, Lord Jesus. Amen.

It’s time for a prayer of supplication. Dear Heavenly Father, we come to You to make our request known on behalf of students, parents, guardians, caretakers of students, educators, administrators, and those who are in charge of school districts. We are grateful that many of us are more than halfway through the first term or quarter. You are sustaining us and renewing our strength as we trust You.

We want to pray about school supplies. Since many schools no longer use textbooks, many teachers need to purchase educational materials online and in bookstores or create their own materials. We pray that You give educators, administrators, and school districts discernment and wisdom concerning curriculum and related materials.

We pray for more school supplies, especially at this time when many schools no longer use textbooks. May teachers be able to purchase additional educational materials or create their own. Click To Tweet

We pray for school buildings and our school systems to make it a priority to have adequate school supplies. We pray that they are good stewards of the materials and are not wasteful or make unwise choices and purchases that are not needed or beneficial for our students. We pray that students, schools, and parents will be rewarded grants, given corporate gifts, and find community partners or neighbors who hear from You and will help supply the needs of the children in their local schools.

Father, we want to pray for the season of the year when report cards are picked up, where parent-teacher conferences are scheduled, and any other type of parent-teacher communication is scheduled for the beginning of the school year in the progress of the children. We pray that by Your Holy Spirit, You’ll put a new desire in the hearts of the parents, guardians, and caretakers to show up at the school for a report card pickup and meet with educators.

We pray that there will be a record number of parents who attend these events, parents of high school students, middle school students, elementary school students, preschool students, and students who are in vocational and special programs. We pray that You help teachers and administrators find new methods and ways to think outside of the box so they can meet with parents who are not able to make it to the school.

Lord, we pray for grandparents, great-grandparents, foster parents, aunts, uncles, and even distant relatives and friends who are raising children who are not their own. We pray that there will be new interest and curiosity about how the students are doing at school this 2024. We pray for the parents who may not be interested in parenting. They may be addicted to substances or addicted to work. They may be parents who have to work multiple jobs. They are parents who have large families with many mouths to feed.

We pray that You supernaturally break through and break down the hindrances and barriers. We pray that You make the rough places smooth and, Lord, that You make the crooked ways straight in the lives of the children in this nation. We pray for a revival, an awakening, or an outpouring of Your spirit that will be like a ripple effect and this land will be changed and healed.

Finally, Father, we lift up student behavior. We pray again that You would do supernatural work regarding the smartphones, social media, internet sites, and the culture of this world and this age that affects our children and causes anger and addiction to controlled substances, pornography, marijuana, and alcohol. We pray for the children who are exposed to physical abuse, sexual abuse, neglect, and even the ADHD medication, asthma medication, or prescription medications that so many children are taking. They’re trying to cope with how the medication makes them feel.

Father, we cry out to You on behalf of the children. Those young children set a personal goal to behave so outrageously that they will get kicked out of school because they want to escape or gain the attention of an adult who seems to be disconnected, overwhelmed, or unable to cope. Lord, we know that we can trust and believe that You are turning situations around. There are testimonies in the making even as we pray these prayers.

Lord, we know that there is nothing too difficult for You. With men, things are impossible, but with You, all things are possible. You have made the Heavens and the Earth. By Your great power and outstretched arm, nothing is too hard for You. We know that You can do all things and that no purpose of Yours can be thwarted. In our closing, I will pray Ephesians 1:18-19 NIV. It’s, “I ask that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened 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.

Amen.