PRAYER FOR EDUCATORS

Education is an issue that most everyone agrees is an important factor in life. Teachers make a lasting difference for generations to come.

Most likely, you’re able to look back with fondness for a particular teacher who encouraged you to dream big or helped you hone a specific skill. But I also think of many other teachers in my life that worked outside a traditional classroom who changed my life with their “lessons”. My parents, grandparents and Uncle John come to mind as my first teachers because they lived with me in the home where I lived.

It shouldn’t surprise us in that God also puts a premium on education. Consider the most basic statement of faith of God’s people, Israel, from Deuteronomy 6:4-5 and was quoted by Jesus in Mark 12:29-30:

29 Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ [1]

Did you get that, With all your mind!

But sometimes, I’m confounded because it seems there is more I don’t know that that which I know. That’s when I remember what, James 1:5 records:

5 If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking.[2]

All of our teachers can be a bright light in our day to day life. The very least we can do is offer our support, respect, and prayers that they would remain strong in the Lord.

As we GATHER ON THIS NATIONAL DAY OF PRAYER, let’s take a moment to lift up parents, grandparents and aunts and uncles, our kids’ teachers or grandchild’s teacher, our algebra-teaching sister, or even the neighbor next door who coaches the high school soccer team. Will you bow your head and join me in prayer?

Jesus Christ, Lord of all learning, when You were a youth, You sat in the midst of the teachers and doctors, hearing their words and questioning their conclusions.

Grant all teachers an abundance of Your wisdom. Prepare their hearts to welcome and love our loved ones, and may we make sure to show them love and respect in return. Give them grace as they help students who are and are not thriving, courage to say what needs to be said, tools and knowledge on how and when to speak love, and strength when they feel weak.

When they feel unseen, remind them that no moment goes unnoticed. They are shaping the future in one million small - yet incredibly important - ways every day.

Thank you for the way in which they give of themselves each day in the classroom, Serving and instructing the next generation of this land. We thank you for them all now.

Father, please fill their hearts with courage now by your mighty Spirit. Fill them with your strength, so they may rise to every challenge and not grow weary. Fill them with your wisdom, so that they may be able to make good judgement when guiding and helping others. Fill them with your peace, so that when stress and anxiety comes it would not overwhelm them. Fill them with your joy, so that the passion they have for their subject may become a infectious passion that spreads.

We ask all this in the wonderful name of Jesus. Amen.

If you are a teacher, hold onto 1 Corinthians 15:58.

Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the Lord’s work, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain. 1 Corinthians 15:58 CSB

[1] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Mk 12:29–30.

[2] Tyndale House Publishers, Holy Bible: New Living Translation (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2015), Jas 1:5.