Recently in my hometown there
was a tragedy that brought many students of the town together for prayer. One
of their fellow students passed away and the prayer vigils that were organized
were a great thing. However, this caused me to ask a question. How do we
reconcile the fact that students will come together to love, support, and pray
for one another in tragedy but will not heed the call of God to do the
same?
Please listen, I'm not saying
that these prayer vigils are bad by any means. I thank God that we have a
community of students, and community of parents that will come together in
times of trouble. However, I pray that this isn't the only time or reason that
we will come together to pray.
This year, 2016, on September
28, is See You at the Pole. On this day during the week of Global Student
Prayer, we have been asked to come together as one, united and pray for our
schools, our towns, our government, our leaders, and whatever else is on our
hearts. This happens every year and during my years at Harrisonville High, I
think that I went 3 times. I'm pretty sure there was one year that we didn't
even have it at all, for lack of organization. The three times I did go there
was very little turn out compared to any time there was a prayer vigil or even
an FCA meeting.
I'm calling on our students
that have positions of leadership, official or not, to organize events at your
school, or on your campus, this is a time where we can come together to love
and support one another, and most of all pray together. Do not doubt the
importance of praying together:
“Truly I tell you, whatever you bind
on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will
be loosed in heaven.
“Again, truly I tell you that if two
of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by
my Father in heaven. For where two or three gather in my name, there am I
with them.”
-Matthew 18:18-20
Jesus, Himself called us to pray together, and He
told us that if we agree on something and pray for it, it will be done! Take
caution here though, don't test God (Deuteronomy 6:16; Matthew 4:7). When Jesus
taught us how to pray, He taught to praise God, ask His will to be done, for
our daily provision, for the forgiveness of our sins as we forgive those who
sin against us, and not to lead us to temptation, but deliver us from evil
(Matthew 6:9-13).
Students, I'm calling on you to rise to the
challenge and make sure you get this set up at your school! Our teachers have
been limited in their ability to help, take initiative! Work together as one
body to get this set up; showing up as five different, or however many groups,
to do the same thing and not coming together to do this will show division
among the Church. Division will drive away new or possible believers.
If you can, this is a great opportunity for donuts
and worship, and/or outreach also. Make it work for your school! Don't miss out
on this opportunity to have fellowship together as one!
If you need help getting resources in order for
this, feel free to contact your youth leader, or myself and we can do our best
to help you. We won't make any promises other than to do our best to help where
and how we can! We've got a month before the big day, let's be ready!
