Ready, Set, Pray!

We have three young men living in our house now. Now grown hairier, cheekier and smelling of aftershave are the little boys who were obsessed with Lego and super heroes. In place of the little boys are these incredibly strong men who have so much potential for the Lord and His Kingdom.

As a parent or grandparent, we pray for our kids, don’t we? We long to see them grow into their full potential and to follow the Lord with a genuine love for Him.

I’ve felt a stirring lately to increase this prayer and today’s verse sums up what the Lord is putting on my heart. I don’t believe it’s only the parents and grandparents that should be praying for the young people in our nations. We all have the potential to pray for the Lord to raise up a generation that will follow after Him. Young men and women need our prayers. The days we live in are so dark and horrible, in so many ways, we need to be praying for the young people who will become our world leaders, our politicians, our teachers in schools and parents of the generation to come.

Here in the UK, there’s so much darkness and emptiness in the eyes of the youth on our streets. It can be scary to walk past a crowd, even in the small town where we live. The world is promising so much cheap pleasure and excitement that is like a carrot on a string enticing their hungry hearts to go deeper and darker to find more of what they think will satisfy.

Being a Christian in today’s world, at least here in the UK, is definitely not for the fainthearted. Evolution has become the norm and, if you believe in a Creator God, it’s met with ridicule. Even greater is the ridicule and disdain if you dare to admit you’re following His ways and His commands.

I believe the Lord is asking us to pray. We can pray for our children, our nieces, our nephews, our neighbours, and the young men and women in our churches. We can pray for the young men and women we see on the street. Our family live on a main road, and past our house each day walks all the kids heading to the High School round the corner. I often feel a stir in my heart to pray for them, as I watch them walk past, wondering what they carry in their hearts. It’s too easy to look at the generation that’s growing and complain and moan about them. How much better that we pray for them and ask the Lord to have mercy on our nation and youth and bring change!

We can pray for the Lord to strengthen and sustain the young men and women who’ll be the Daniels, the Davids, the Esthers in the coming years. We can pray the Lord gives them courage and passion deep in their hearts, healing their wounds of rejection and ostracism. We can pray too for the lost generation who’re sinking deeper and deeper into despair, desperate for something or anything to quench their thirst and hunger for love and worth.

We don’t all have to be evangelists or transform our nations through platforms or on stages, but each one of us can be a person who prays and seeks the Lord. We serve a God who can change lives and who answers prayers. Let’s get busy praying. Lord Jesus, teach us how to pray!

Prayer: Lord Jesus, we pray today for those men and women who, at a young age, are seeking to follow You. Would You strengthen them and give them courage and passion for You that causes them to stand secure in their convictions. Lord Jesus, we cry out too for the young people trapped in the emptiness and hunger of looking for what they think will satisfy – the ones we know and see in our towns and cities. Lord, would You reach them and give them opportunity to meet with You and know of Your incredible, transforming, satisfying love. Lord Jesus, please teach us how to pray. Amen.