Praying for Your Life Community

Prayer is a non-negotiable in the Kingdom of God and in the nurturing of an environment of life transformation. Not praying would be like me telling you to fly to the moon, then giving you a space shuttle, providing all the training you need, all the equipment you need, all of the instructions, a place to launch from, and then you saying “no thank you I will just walk outside and start flapping my arms”. Unfortunately we do that too often in the Christian life. God has said over and over in His Word that if we will pray He will do great things. But we choose not to pray and expect great things anyway. When we don’t pray we miss out on what God wants to do.

Here are 5 things that I believe you should pray for your Life Community.

That God would bring the people He desires into your Life Community
As Jesus was in the process of choosing His 12 he went away to pray (Luke 6:12). It is important to remember that Jesus was always motivated but what the Father wanted and He didn’t do anything without the Father’s initiative. We should not take lightly the call to ask God to create the community that He wants.

That they would value what Jesus values, the glory of God.
The glory of God was what motivated Jesus. He always sought to do what pleased the Father because He knew that was the greatest source of joy in life. Everyday students are bombarded with the opportunity to “exchange the glory of God for a lie”. That temptation may come in the form of an unhealthy relationship to believing that pursuing money will be more satisfying than knowing Jesus Christ. Pray that they would be worshippers of Jesus alone.

That they would live a life of sacrificial love for one another.
Jesus told His disciples that the world would know they were His by the quality of their love for one another (John 13:34-35). Pray that those in your community would be united in love for each other as Jesus prayed, “that they may be one even as We are.” Pray this so that those around them who do not know Jesus would be able to see that Jesus is real.

That they would persevere in trials.
Jesus prayed that Peter’s faith would remain strong when he was tested (Luke 22:31-32). As you know, your fellow students face every temptation imaginable on the campus. As brothers and sisters in Christ it is our responsibility and privilege to fight with them and for them in prayer. Pray that their faith would remain and that God would grant them victory over trials and temptations.

That they would be used to change the world.
I believe that all Christians on campus are “workers for the harvest”. You need to pray that they would see themselves as world changers and be obedient to God’s call to the mission field they are on. Pray that they would be used to spread the gospel to the ends of the earth through their time on campus.

I love these two passages. They challenge me deeply in regards to prayer. They are amazing promises.

Jeremiah 33:3 “Call to Me and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and mighty things, which you do not know.”

John 16:12-14 “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father. Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.”