Greetings!

As Christian teachers, we must continually invite the power of the Holy Spirit into every situation of our professional practice, including the day-to-day activities in our classrooms.  Often, we attempt to fix a situation ourselves, instead of engaging the power of the ultimate fixer, God. We are called to pray, go and serve.

Using the Adoration Confession Thanksgiving Supplication (ACTS) Prayer Model, this week’s Supplication prayer will focus on continuing to invite the Holy Spirit into our schools every day and building attendance of students and staff.

Please join Teachers Who Pray in implementing our Prayer Power for 15 minutes (1% of your daily minutes) for teachers on the Weekly Monday Evening Prayer Call 7-7:15 pm, CT.

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Faithful Foundations: Inviting The Holy Spirit Into Our Schools Everyday

It breaks trees into pieces. Your voice makes the ground of the earth leap. Your voice strikes, flashes of lightning. Your voice shakes the desert. Your voice twists trees and strips forest bear. You sit andron over the seas. You are enthroned as the king forever. You give strength to your people. You bless your people with complete peace. Because of your great love, Lord, we are not consumed. Your compassion never fails. Your compassion is new every morning. Great is your faithfulness.

We are able to say the Lord is our portion, destiny, and lot in life. Therefore, we will wait for you. You, Lord, are good to those who put their hope in you to those who seek you. It is good to wait quietly for your salvation, Lord. Let all that is within us. Praise the Lord. Lord our God, how great you are. You are robed with majesty. Who is like you, Lord? Glorious and holiness, awesome and splendor. You are performing great wonders. You are the king of glory. You are God almighty. Great is your love towards us, and your faithfulness will endure forever. Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Amen.

Father God, we confess that we don’t repent on a daily basis. We’ll find ourselves carrying the burdens of our day to bed with us and dragging them again to school the next day. Father, forgive us. We confess that we are weary of the ordinariness and routine of teaching. We confess we are frustrated with student outcomes. We confess that we don’t feel like getting up and doing it again each day. We confess our bodies are tired. Our minds are fuzzy and uninspired.

We don’t see you working because we’ve taken our eyes off of you and are focusing only on ourselves. Lord, we confess that we can’t fix each and every broken child because we are not God. You are. Our hearts are heavy with despair. We confess that some days, we can’t find the patience to teach beyond lunchtime. We can’t even imagine having to repeat another direction.

We confess that we find ourselves constantly complaining and with a loss of hope. Lord God, we need you. There is no way around it. When we surrender our teaching, students, and ourselves to you on a daily basis, repent, and turn our eyes to you, you promise to be with us, strengthen us, help us, and uphold us.

Perfect Peace

Lord God, you promise to give us perfect peace when we keep our minds on you, God, and trust you. You promise never to leave us, to always go before us, and you tell us not to be discouraged or afraid. You promise us that you have overtaken the world. We have victory and freedom in you. Father God, you promise to instruct us, counsel us, and teach us in the way we should go in all things, even in our teaching. Hallelujah.

Lord, you promise that when we are exhausted and come to you, you will give us rest. Finally, you promise us that those who hope in you will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not grow faint. Lord, thank you for forgiving us and giving us that perfect hope that is only found in you. Amen.

Thanksgiving. A day that begins and ends in prayer. Praise won’t become unraveled. God, we come before you with hearts overflowing with gratitude. You are the source of every blessing in our lives. We are humbled by your love and grace. Thank you for the countless blessings you have poured into our lives, big and small.

God is the source of every blessing in our lives. Click To Tweet

Lord, we are grateful for the blessings that are not only material provisions but external blessings of faith and hope. We are grateful for your unwavering presence in our lives, your guidance in times of uncertainty, and your comfort in times of sorrow. Help us remember those less fortunate and be a source of blessing to those in need. May your love and grace flow through us to touch the lives of others.

“Continue earnestly in prayer, being diligent in it with thanksgiving,” Colossians 4:2. If we would learn to say thank you with a smile for all the favors done for us, especially saying thank you to God for every blessing, it would give us a whole new outlook on each day. Nothing brightens life like the spirit of thanksgiving. “Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him,” Colossians 3:17.

Speak every word in gratitude and do everything with a thankful heart. In Ephesians 5, we are told that when the spirit of God fills our lives, we’ll be thankful to God in all present situations. “It is good to praise the Lord and to make music to your name almost high, proclaiming your love in the morning and your faithfulness at night,” Psalms 92:1 and 2. We pray, oh God, according to your word. In Psalms 92, it is good to give thanks to you, and we have many reasons for thanking you. We praise you for your grace, goodness, mercy in our lives, and all the good gifts we have. From the breath we are breathing to the water we drink and the food we eat to the good gifts of friends, families, brothers, and sisters in Christ.

When the spirit of God feels, our lives will be thankful to God in all present situations. Click To Tweet

We thank you for the safety to and from school to work. We thank you for protecting the playground and our educational institutions before classes start, during recess, and after school is over. We thank you for the students who show up daily to gain knowledge. We thank you for parents who are supportive of the students and teachers. We thank you for all the school staff who collaborate effectively to educate future generations. We thank you for the custodial staff, who are an essential part of the work we do by providing us with a clean and functional environment.

We thank you for those who work in the office managing our systems. Bless them as they offer hospitality to all who come on the phone and in person. Give them the fortitude to hear so much yet maintain confidentiality. We thank you for the cafeteria staff who begin their work early in the morning in anticipation of the students who count on them for breakfast and lunch each day.

We thank you for the wisdom to present lessons and materials that are of interest to the students and encourage their mastery of the content. We thank you to politicians, superintendents, district chiefs, and the administration for implementing policies and procedures to positively impact all who are involved. We thank you for funding to meet all the financial needs and desires necessary to operate the school. We thank you for the church. We thank you for our salvation, for forgiving us of our sins, and for making us new creatures. We thank you for hope.

Joy That Supercedes Circumstances

Lord, we thank you for peace that passes all understanding. We thank you for the joy that supersedes circumstances. We thank you for the way you love, lead, guide, and provide for us. We sing praises to your name. We thank you for the countless blessings you have bestowed upon us both in times of joy and challenge.

We are grateful for the love of family and friends who surround us, for the food on our table, and for the shelter over our heads. Most of all, we thank you for your presence in our lives. Help us, Lord, to always maintain hearts filled with gratitude. May we continue to count on all joy and to give thanks in all things. In Jesus’ name, we pray this prayer of thanksgiving. Amen.

Prayer of supplication. Father God, we come to you with this prayer of supplication. Psalms 1:21-22 says, “I lift up my eyes in the mountains. Where does my help come from? My hug comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth.” Matthew 7:7 says, “Ask, and it will be given to you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and the door will be open to you.”

Father God, we thank you in advance for answering the prayers we are lifting up to you. We thank you for placing your mighty, righteous, and loving hands on attendance issues. We thank you that there will not be an abundance of attendance issues causing students to fall further behind in their work and learning. We thank you that you are touching these students’ lives right now. Let no transportation issues, problems in the home, fear of going to school, worry about academics, or any other hindrance or attack of the enemy stop these students from coming to school and learning.

Attendance Issues

Father God, we thank you for for protecting these students. We thank you for working on their and their parents’ hearts and mindsets to understand the importance of education. Help no one to be embarrassed, to reach out for help, and to suffer the consequences of attendance issues. We bind family emergencies and peer pressure that block students from being able to or even wanting to come to school. We leave these things in your hands. We also ask and thank you for wisdom and peace in dealing with these issues. We call them gone and taken care of by faith in the mighty name of Jesus.

We also come to you praying for the Holy Spirit to move into our schools. You, Father God, are holy, and you are good. You provide us with your Holy Spirit to lead, counsel, comfort, and convict us. I pray for the fruits of the spirit to be displayed in and through us, in and through our classes, and in and through our schools in the surrounding communities. Thank you in advance for the display of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, so much so that they don’t become symbols of things that we should be praised for, but they become the norm. You get the glory.

May the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so 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. Click To Tweet

What The Holy Spirit Speaks

I pray that we, as leaders in our classrooms, will lead by example and only speak, think, and act as the Holy Spirit leads us to. You, Father God, are continuing to guide us and bless us. I pray that we do not harden our hearts and turn our ears and eyes from what the Holy Spirit is speaking and doing. I pray for drastic changes, for unwanted behavior to turn to desired behavior, and for students to receive help, materials, and support as we lean not on our own understanding but on the Holy Spirit’s guidance.

We speak the Holy Spirit and are obedient, and how we teach, how we interact with coworkers, admin, and students, how we conduct ourselves, and how we speak when no one else is listening. We know that it is your good and perfect will for us to be led by the Holy Spirit. We read your word now, Father God, to know what your Holy Spirit says, and thank you in advance for these things right now in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen. Ephesians 1:18-19, “I ask that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so 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.”

Thank you so much.