Come to the Table: 5 Strategic Ways to Pray for Student Life 2015

Here we are again. Student Life Camp 2015 is just shy of a week away for us and the excitement is starting to build. I'm excited to be joining my home church once again to lead these students alongside my mother and another adult leader from the church. I'm excited to see how the youth will grow more in their faith and with each other. And I'm excited to see how the Lord moves through them this week to what will be different as they exit the camp high and enter their lives once again. That is the ultimate goal. That they will continue to be radically changed by the Gospel and that it will influence every aspect of their life. As we prepare, here are 5 strategic ways to pray over the week:

1. Pray for the Students
Pray that the Lord may start working on the hearts and minds of the students now as they prepare to come. That the Lord will work in their hearts to grow a deeper desire for Him in them. That if they don't know the Lord, that He would open them up to His gracious gift of salvation through Him. Pray that they may continue to grow as a community and gain valuable fellowship through the games and time of study this week and the Lord be glorified more and more as they uplift one another as we are called to do.

2. Pray for the Leaders
Pray for the leaders of this week. Multiple leaders from multiple churches from across our country will be joining together this week. Pray that the Lord will work and use us in whatever form He deems fit for His will to be brought and for Him to ultimately receive all glory through our teaching and leading of the students throughout the week. Pray that we may gain rest and have strength because it can become an exhausting week at times. That we may have patience, grace, and love continually with the students and that we may be able to influence them for God's glory.

3. Pray for the Speaker
Pray for the speaker of this week, Tony Merida (brief background can be found here). Pray that the Lord may use Him and speak through Him to reach these students with the Gospel. Pray that he may be humbled before Him as he prepares and brings the Word of our Lord to us this week. Pray for his family as he leaves them this week that they may all have strength and comfort from our Lord during their separation for the week.

4. Pray for the Band 
Pray for the worship band this week, Bellarive. Pray that their hearts may be prepared and put in a place of humility before the Lord that He may work through them as we sing praises to our God. That they may use their gifts continually through the week for the worship of our Lord and He may be honored and praised through our time together.

5. Pray for the Staff
Pray for the Student Life staff, encompassing many college students like myself and many others. This is probably going to be their third or fourth camp of the Summer, traveling week by week, setting up and tearing down stages and game areas and sleeping quarters. Pray that the Lord will strengthen them as they continue on in tiredness and pray that He may continue to use them in whatever measure for His glory as we enter this week. That the students may look to them as examples of our Savior and see how to grow in our faith even more by the example and impact they may leave on them.

Ultimately this week, pray for our Lord to be glorified by our praise and worship and teaching of His word. The games and car rides and time to just hang out with friends is fun, but pray that we may not get distracted from why we are there: to grow in our knowledge of our Lord, to see hearts turned to following Him ,that He may receive the glory due His name with the gracious gift He has blessed us with in knowing Him.

"Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen." (Ephesians 3:20-21 ESV) 

Our Call Out of Anxiousness

I am a recent college graduate without a full time job or career path; sifting through the multiple options I have for graduate programs as a former science major. All the while many doors have been presented and have been shut on a daily basis. It would seem that I have a multitude of things to worry and think about. I recently spent the last semester of my college career questioning the degree path that I chose. Gratefully I exited that time broken and humbled before my Savior realizing His great plan for my life is for His glory and for my good. The "good" might be, for the moment, a part time job with a college degree. The good might be continual emails of rejection from jobs. The good might be the constant state of indecisiveness I've experienced the past few years in trying to ascertain what is next.

Now, while I know and understand God's good is far greater than I can comprehend or imagine, a worldly mindset would see it otherwise. I should be in a state of panic and worry as to what is to come. That I should not be content with what is occurring in my life and career path. But, as I am sitting here prepping for the camp I will be counseling at in less than a week, the first lesson begins with the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew, ending in 6:33-34: 

"But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.“Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble."" (Matthew 6:33-34 ESV)

To fully understand what is going on here, we must realize where He is coming from. Jesus is addressing the monetary and daily necessities we need to sustain life. He just recently gave them two examples of how God takes care of the birds of the air and adorns the fields with flowers, so why wouldn't He do the same for us, considering we are of more value? (Matthew 6:25-32). Christ is addressing the anxious heart throughout this passage. He confronts our vulnerability toward anxiety with the surety of God's gracious provision. As we come to verse 33, He is calling us to seek His kingdom and righteousness. That is our call and the Lord intends to bring us to a place of reliance and assurance in our Savior.  He will provide for every need we have on this Earth to continue His work.

And then we come to verse 34 where He ends in calling us not to be anxious. That we should not have worries about what lies ahead or anything of the sort. That our anxieties of the future pale in comparison to the Father who knows what lies ahead and has provision beyond our comprehension laid out to meet our needs. This is what I come back to. This is where I stand and hope and trust and wait. The God who calls me to seek Him and His kingdom first, He will take care of me. That I am in my Father's sovereign and capable hands. I am resolved to seek Him and trust in Him. This time of waiting is for a reason. The good in being jobless (full time that is in my field of interest) is that it is preparing me and teaching me full reliance upon our Savior. He is teaching me how to wake up each day, not in anxiousness and fear of what's to come, but in knowing and trusting that today and tomorrow is laid out by His hand. That He holds the future and that tomorrow's anxieties will care for themselves. Let us seek first His kingdom and pursue His righteousness, knowing that He has and He will always carry us with full and complete assurance in His gracious provision. Has He ever failed us? He cannot! (2 Tim 2:13) Though I don't know what tomorrow or next month or next year holds, I know Who it is that holds me and what better hands could there be than the Maker of this world?