If a month can feel fast and slow at the same time, this July wins the prize. When change collides for every member of your household, something familiar like “Back to School” sounds strangely comforting.
At our neighborhood store, bins of classroom banners and primary colored containers remind me there is a season and rhythm for everything. Holding up those seasons, sometimes holding them together, is a wrapping of prayer. For a lot of women in today’s pace, prayer isn’t a practice they grew up learning and they honestly wonder, “Why? Why pray?” Why is Back to School or work or family or life any different if you pray? It’s a fair question. You may need a Prayer Boost for Back to School.
Back to School rhythms remind me of reasons why we pray. I could tell you why I pray, but that starts with what I believe to be true about prayer. God took time in the Bible to help us know how prayer works.
God invites
To pray is to approach the One who made me, knows me, and wants me to come. “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us,” (1 John 5:14). He isn’t a disinterested, uninvolved Spirit. We can know when we come to God in prayer, He welcomes us. If we need to lay out our life before Him to remove the barriers of our brokenness and begin a relationship with Him, we can do that through prayer too. He wants us to come and talk to Him about the worries and the schedules and the friendships and the bus routes and the try outs …. all of it.
God listens
Prayer is a conversation with God, talking to Him and listening to Him through His Spirit and His word. “The eyes of the LORD are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their cry,” (Psalm 34:15). He promises to listen when I call on Him, any time and all the time! “As for me, I call to God, and the Lord saves me. Evening, morning and noon I cry out in distress, and he hears my voice,” (Psalm 55:16-17). During this month of “new” things overload in our household, I’ve leaned hard on God’s promise to listen about career changes, miles traveled, relationship woes, disappointments, relocations, and unanswered questions. Back to school is a seasonal reminder of how good it is to know God wants me to call on Him in prayer for the journey of learning. That’s a journey that never stops.
God answers
“In the morning, O LORD, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait in expectation,” (Psalm 5:3).
When we speak to God about the hard things of life, we can anticipate His response. We aren’t wasting our time or pouring out our hearts pointlessly. God listens and moves as a result, not like ordering quick pick up at Wal-Mart, but like a loving Father with wisdom to know what’s best, (James 5:16). Especially when it comes to all things school, He knows what’s best, even when we don’t.
I used to think when the Back to School years passed, my urgency to pray at this time of year would pass away with supply lists and labeling of everything from coats to crayons. Not so. There will never be a season when I will let go of my need to pray to the God who invites me to come to Him, listens when I do, and answers for my good.
Get a Prayer Boost for Back to School
- Join a Facebook prayer group like The ABCs of Praying for Students (Starts August 1st) or the Million Praying Moms group.
- Look for your local Moms in Prayer group and discover the power of praying together for your children and schools.
- Get a prayer journal like the Pray the Word Journal OR just an old fashioned notebook to record your cares and your answers to prayer.
- Ask a friend to be a prayer partner with you. There’s great encouragement in praying for someone and in being prayed for. This is a great resource to show you how.
- Get your copy of The ABCs of Praying for Students here and use it as a guide (with a friend or group?) to pray in a way that will change your child’s learning journey.
