W2W Blog: Praying for our teens                             

I think teenage years are one of the hardest stages of our lives… yesterday we saw the teens God has given our church family at Carrubbers stand up and declare that like Daniel they want to put God above other things in life. The reality is far harder to live out as we well know. So today, lets pray for them (and their parents who need God’s wisdom to guide them through these years).

If you don’t know any by name to pray for that’s ok… God knows each one… each is fearfully and wonderfully made (psalm 139)… he knows how to answer your prayers in each of their lives…

(Prayers are taken from Daniel chapter 1… from the book each of them was given yesterday: Rachel Jones “5 Things to Pray for the People you Love”)

1. Pray that each of our teens would have citizenship in heaven (Dan1:3)

First, lets pray that each of them makes, or continues to hold fast to the decision they’ve made to trust God for salvation. That they would have a keen sense of their identity in Christ. Just as God’s people were aliens in Babylon, pray that these teens would see themselves as a foreigner in this world but a citizen in heaven. As they begin to make decisions that affect the direction of their lives, pray that they would want to spend it working for the kingdom of heaven before any earthly employer

2. Pray that our teens would have firm resolve (Dan 1:8)

Pray that each one wold have the same firm resolve as Daniel, resisting the pressure to do what is wrong. As their peers and the media call on them to conform to “normal” teenage behaviour – gossip, sex, drunkenness etc – pray that this teenager would be prepared to stand up for what is right and be prepared to live a life that’s distinctively different.

3. Pray that they would have good health (Dan 1:15)

Whether its changing bodies, changing hormones, changing sleep patterns, changing work pressures, changing peer pressures or changing appetites… pray that God would keep these precious teens healthy physically, mentally and emotionally

4. Pray that our teens would have good knowledge and understanding (Dan 1:17)

Pray for these young people in their studies that they would have a good attitude which honours God, being eager and willing to learn. Pray that they would respect their teachers in the way they behave and that they would work hard to make the most of the gifts God has given them.

5. Pray that God would give them true wisdom (Dan1:20)

Ask God to give these teens a deep love for God’s word and a real desire to apply it to their lives. Wherever they stand in their faith right now, pray that God would increase their wisdom “ten times over”. Pray for their parents, Christian friends, bible class leaders, exodus leaders and all of us as their older sisters/ aunties in Christ that we would encourage them in their faith, and have wisdom to know how best to guide them and to model godliness to them.

Praise God he has given us these precious teens in our church family