#10 - Inviting God to Your School

[Note #1: Praise God, after almost 3 weeks, I’m back at maintaining this blog. Three weeks ago this Thursday, lightning here in Orlando blew out several fuses to my phone connection. It not only took out my phones but also my computer modem. It wasn’t until last Wed. that a modem was finally delivered and it wasn’t until last night, thanks to the help of my good friend, Dan Lum, I was able to get the modem to work correctly. (Thanks again, Dan. I’m blessed to have friends like you to be there when I need them.)]

[Note #2: Please be sure to check my other blog. Tuesday and tomorrow will have articles about the health care reform being proposed by the President. Also, be sure to check the latest editorial cartoons on the right side of the title page for Worldmag.com]

PrayerWalk

Please forgive me for not sharing with you about this earlier this summer. I know that there are only several weeks left before the school year restarts (vacations really go by quickly, don’t they?) but I think its really important that you make some attempt to do this, even if it is just you and a few friends going down to your school. OR, if your church body happens to meet at a middle school or high school, you could see if some adults would want to join you and other youth at your church to do this (EVEN IF it is not at YOUR school).

The Larger VISION. You might recall my sharing in an earlier posting that YOU are NOT a student at the school you are attending Before time began, our sovereign God planned for YOU to attend THAT school at this time in history. Your assignment –whether you choose to accept it or not - is not just to be a student who seeks to do excellent work and always does his or her best. As a Christian student, YOU are sent as an ambassador (2 Cor. 17-20, esp. verse 20) to a mission field that is your school. YOU are one of a select group (Christian students) who will be at your school to be a witness for Christ by your life, and as opportunity permits, by your words. YOU have been given the unique calling to make a difference in the lives of those at your school, not just for NOW, but for ETERNITY. One day, all else that others gain from being at your school – including the teachers, administrators, and other school workers – will mean little compared to whether they leave having heard and made a decision to place their trust in Christ. Yes, YOU can leave a legacy of changed lives at your school when you leave. NOTHING is as important.

The MODEL and the IDEA. When you look at going to school in this way, you can appreciate how every time you are at school you can go with the anticipation of seeing what God might do through YOU to touch the lives of others. Realize also that your efforts will face opposition FOR SURE in the spiritual world. But realize, too, that you have EVERY spiritual blessing God has to offer in Christ (Eph. 1:3) and that a key blessing is that of intercessory prayer. Recall that God commanded Joshua to walk around the city of Jericho (Joshua 5:13-6:21) every day for seven days in order to conquer it. In a similar way, we need to “exercise” our faith by walking around our school campuses and committing it – with prayer- to God and asking Him to bring about a great moving of His Spirit there in the year ahead.

My Suggestion. (1) Determine the layout of the school campus. Note as many key locations as you can: such as the bus loop, the athletic field, the administration offices, the teacher’s lounge, the classrooms, and others. (2) Think of something to pray about related to each key location. For instance, (a) The bus loop: Prayer could be said for the driver, for the behavior of the student-passengers, safe travel, and opportunities for Christian students to meet non-Christian and non-Christian students they would build a relationship with, (b) The athletic field: Prayer could be said for the safety of the athletes, the athletes to be competitive with excellent play without unnecessary swagger, and the testimony of the Christian athletes on and off the field. (c) The administration offices: prayer for the wisdom of the principal and his/her staff in giving direction and making decisions for the betterment of the school; for the school counselors; for the school nurses, etc. (d) The teacher’s lounge: Pray for the teachers to have wisdom and patience in helping and challenging each student to do their very best, to teach truths and not a particular worldview, for non-Christians to be open to consider the claims of Christ and Christians to be protected from doubt and fear to be salt and light to their students, to other teachers, and to all others at the school; and (e) The classrooms: Pray that the students will have discernment as they get information from the internet, textbooks, other materials, and yes, even their teachers, that they will each seek to do their best and seek not just to past tests or to do assignments but to truly learn and to develop a thirst for learning as a lifestyle.

(3) Send at least two people to each of these locations to pray the suggested prayers. Then, those at each location could go on to pray for other things such as the school board and critical issues being considered; other support staff (such as custodians, aides, and cafeteria workers); special education programs and their students; students who experience rejection; students who are suicidal; students who are chronically failing; students who are suffering from abuse, neglect, bullying or are from homes of divorce, violence; students with emotional problems; new students trying to fit in; that the influence of those who mean to harm others would be broken; that all practices of witchcraft, divination, and the occult would be stopped; and finally, that there would always be an open door to Christian based programs and groups being made available to make the gospel available to as many at the school as possible. And (4) Re-gather everyone after a time for closing prayer. [Of course, in all the prayers, anytime the specific names of people can be mentioned the better.]

Will this all make a difference? A great writer on prayer, O. Hallesby taught that prayer was inviting God into our need. I’ve always liked that. Can you imagine what an all-powerful God could do in any situation or do to change any hardened heart? We may never know this side of Heaven what a prayer walk did to see good things happen in any circumstance. But, oh, the fun it will be to find out when we get there.

P.S. – For those of you heading for college, you will probably have to adapt these suggestions to the unique nature of the college campus. But with the especially hostile anti-Christian views that await you, is there any reason you would not want to do something, anything, to bring God into the spiritual battles that are bound to take place in and out of the classrooms of your campus in the year ahead? Go ahead, invite God to your university and see if He doesn’t do something supernatural.