Desperate Prayers!

This last week I got the awesome opportunity to attend Desperation with our youth group (Fusion Student Ministry – Pastor Andy’s blog HERE & twitter HERE). Desperation is a youth conference put on by New Life Church in Colorado Springs, CO. Really it isn’t JUST a youth conference, it’s more than that. Now I know that may seem cliché, but there is such a focus on prayer and obedience to the Holy Spirit, that it isn’t just an event. I loved being able to go. I went as one of the leader/chaperons. Realistically I probably required a chaperon more than the students, but Andy let me lead… I even got to drive the 12 passenger van.

When we arrived Pastor Andy gave each of the leaders a journal that he had wrote each of the student’s names on their own page. He asked the leaders to pray for the students and to write our specific prayers for each student on that student’s page. I thought this was an amazing idea. I did pray for the entire group, but I felt led to pray some specific stuff for those 11 students that rode in my van. Here are my prayers for those students:

All of them:
The first thing that I prayed for them is that all of them would aggressively seek purity. Of course I meant that they would maintain sexual purity and that they would “flee from sexual immorality.” But I also prayed that they would seek purity for their hearts (emotional connections and what they attach themselves to) and purity of mind (what they subject themselves to in entertainment and the stuff they choose to believe).

The ladies:
The first thing I prayed specific to them was that they would believe what God says about them. I prayed Psalm 45:10 – 15 over them. This is what it says:

Listen to me, O royal daughter; take to heart what I say. Forget your people and your family far away. For your royal husband delights in your beauty; honor him, for he is your lord. The princess of Tyre will shower you with gifts. The wealthy will beg your favor. The bride, a princess, looks glorious in her golden gown. In her beautiful robes, she is led to the king, accompanied by her bridesmaids. What a joyful and enthusiastic procession as they enter the king’s palace!

God is telling them that they are royal daughters of the King. That they are beautiful and that God delights in them. That all they need to do is come to Him.

Second I prayed that they know and accept that they are worth being pursued by their King and that they can find their approval in Him and not anyone else.

The Guys:

My first I prayer for them was that they know they were made to be leaders. That when they lead the way that God desires them to, people will be led to Christ. I prayed that they know they are able to all things in Christ when they submit to Him.

Second I prayed that they know who God has called them to be. That they would grow into men that resemble Jesus. I prayed Psalm 45:16 & 17 over them. It says:

Your sons will become kings like their father. You will make them rulers over many lands. I will bring honor to your name in every generation. Therefore, the nations will praise you forever and ever.

God is telling them that they are sons of the King. That they are meant to be kings. That when they lead the way God has called them to nations will praise God.

A lot of my prayer for the group had to do with where they find their identity and worth. I want so desperately for them to find it fully in Jesus. I got to see this amazing group of young people truly and genuinely engage God. Some had a more outward expression of that interaction, but you could see all of them enter into that place where they met with Jesus. Sadly a lot of people discount this generation. They say that there aren’t a lot of opportunities left for them, they’re too lazy or unmotivated, but the young people I saw are headed to the heart of Jesus. This generation is poised for great things and I’m stoked to see what God does in and through them.

In the end, my prayer remains that they would leave Desperation wanting more of Jesus, not because of an emotional response to a moment of passion, but because they encountered Him; but because they beheld His majesty and glory and they can’t do anything but seek after Him! Look out world… they’re coming!