Great Prayers For The Next Generation

Great Prayers for the Next Generation

Psalm 139:13-14, 1 Peter 5:5-7, Eph 1:3-7, Phil 2:5, James 1:5

*We are here tonight to do one of the most important things we can ever do for Vacation Bible School: We are here to pray for VBS.

1. First: Pray for the children to know that they are God’s creation.

*In Psalm 139, David praised the Lord with these words:

13. You have formed my inward parts; You have covered me in my mother’s womb.

14. I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, And that my soul knows very well.

*In vs. 13, “Lord, YOU formed me.” James Merritt explains: “David knew that we are a physical miracle created by the power of God. . . That is, David said, "I am not here because of mother nature, fate, or chance.” David knew that your life was not an accident. Your life is a wonderful gift from God!

*In vs. 14, “I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, And that my soul knows very well.” We are “fearfully made.” That word means we should stand in awe at the complexity of our creation. We are “wonderfully made.” That word means we are a marvelous creation of God.

*Your body is such an incredibly precise machine that if it is working normally, you can: Feel on your fingertips or face a pressure that depresses your skin only .00004 inch, see 300,000 different colors, and taste a tiny spoon of salt dissolved in 500 quarts of water. Your body is a physical miracle that can only be explained by the unlimited power of God. (1)

*Pray for the children to know that they are God’s creation.

2. And pray for them to know that God cares for them.

*1 Peter 5:5-7 tells believers:

5. Likewise you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for "God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.’’

6. Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time,

7. casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.

*Cast all your care upon God, because HE CARES FOR YOU. The idea here is to do it quickly. Don’t wait around. Throw your cares on the Lord.

*John Piper tells us that this word “casting” occurs only one other time in the New Testament: in Luke 19:35. It’s Palm Sunday and the disciples have been sent to get the donkey for Jesus to ride on. Then verse 35 says, "They brought it to Jesus, and casting their garments on the colt, they set Jesus on it."

*So the meaning is simple and straight forward: if you have a garment on and you want an animal to carry it for you. You "cast" the garment on the animal. In this way you don’t carry it anymore. It’s on the animal, not on you. The donkey works for you by lifting your load. And God is willing to carry your anxieties the same way a donkey carries your baggage.

*John Piper says, “One of the greatest things about the God of the Bible is that he commands us to let him work for us before commanding us to work for him.”

-So in Matt 11:28 Jesus said: "Come to me all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest"

-Psalm 55:22 says: "Cast your burden on the Lord, and he will sustain you"

-And in Isaiah 46:4 the Lord tells us, “Even to your old age I am He, and to gray hairs I will carry you. I have made, and I will bear; I will carry and will save" (2)

*When your world is crashing in, you may be tempted to think that the Lord doesn’t care for you. But just look back at the cross! The cross of Christ forever proves God’s care for you!

*Pray for the children to know God cares for them.

3. And pray for them to trust in the cross of Christ.

*God has a plan for your life! In Jeremiah 29:11 in the NKJ, God says: “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future & a hope.”

*The root word picture for “thoughts” is weaving, weaving something together according to your plan. So in the New Living Translation of Jeremiah 29:11, God says: “For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.”