Praying God Sized Prayers

Summer Staff Friends!

This is the first of a weekly Wednesday blog update from Nicki and me (we need to come up with a good name for these…I’m open to suggestions). We’ll be writing and slowly expanding on the letter that we sent out to each one of you. The hope is to be able to give you a foundation on which to serve on SS in August.

One of the things I’ve been learning the most about this year is prayer. Praying has always been something that I’ve struggled with. Despite growing up in a family where prayer was regular, I never really have grasped how to pray. I often feel like the disciples in Luke 11, who almost desperately cry out “Lord, teach us to pray!”

I feel like I often pray for things that I can accomplish. Small things. I pray that a particular kid who I know well and am pretty sure is going to come to club will come to club. Then I get excited when he comes to club! But I struggle to pray God sized prayers. What happens if they don’t come true? What does that mean about God? What does that mean about my ability to pray?

I learned a lot about prayer this year from a surprising source. A group of 9^th grade boys.

I know. It seems crazy to me too.

These 9^th grade boys would meet with their leader Michael in my basement every Wednesday morning. I would help give them rides to school. They’d conclude each time together with prayer. Their prayer times would always go about 3 times as long as I expected them to. They would pray for ridiculous things. They spent a few months praying for a friend who transferred schools. Imagine my surprise (and they’re excitement) when this friend transferred back. And then came to club. And then signed up for camp! 

I was challenged to pray big things. Ridiculous things. God sized things.

I want to challenge you with the same thing. Young Life affirms, “Anything we accomplish will be accomplished by prayer.” We need to be a people of prayer this summer. We need to spend the next months praying for the 2 weeks of middle school kids that will role through camp. Those 9^th grade boys all came through WyldLife camp at Rockbridge last August. Someone was praying for them.

We also want to surround you with a prayer team. We’ll want you to think about 5 people that would pray for you. We’ll, at some point, want you to share with us their names and email addresses so that we can share prayer requests with them.

Lets begin now to pray. Lets all commit to diligently pray. Lets pray for:

• For an open heart to serve.
• For each other and our WC friends.
• For lasting friendships and a life changing experience.
• For the hundreds of campers and leaders that we will encounter.

James 5:16 tells us that “The prayers of a righteous man are powerful and effective.” Lets believe that together. Lets pray God sized prayers. Lets be ready to celebrate when they come true!

What about you? Where do you fall into this? Comment below. Lets get a conversation going! Am I the only one who struggles with praying big prayers? What types of things are you praying for this assignment?

Much love,

Steve