Weekly Prayer Points
Week commencing Sunday 16th June 2024
Writing this week's Prayer Points, there are 18 get-ups left until Election Day in the UK. For some who are not Christians, this might be the only time they pray all year; for those of us who are Christians, we will keep praying even when 4th July is long gone. As for the "election promises" we are starting to hear, history tells us that few of those EPs will ever come to justify that description; however, on at least one topic, all parties are right to try to assure the public - the mental health of our young people.
Anxiety, guilt, sadness, fear, purposelessness, lack of self-worth are nothing new; they have been central to the human condition since Eden and will continue to be until Heaven. What is also permanently true is that the further we remove God from His position as the answer to these mental anguishes, the more pandemic they become. And this is why our schools will be great battlegrounds in these regards for the days, weeks, months and years ahead.
- Lord, we thank You that our schools have been free to encourage young people to hear about You and, if they wish, to worship You every day they are in school. We pray that this provision will continue for our current and future generations;
- Lord, we mourn the disinterest which too many schools show in providing this opportunity to the children in their care, and we ask that You might inspire us as teachers and Governors to find ways of encouraging a return to this daily act of reverence, contemplation and worship;
- Lord, we thank You that You promise to remove all guilt and shame from us as we repent and ask for Your forgiveness (1 John 1.9) and to stand alongside those who come to You and lighten the loads we carry (Psalm 55.22 and Matt 11.28-30);
- Lord, we pray for those children who live life without You that they make come to know the VALUE You place on them, the PRICE You paid for their release from guilt and worthlessness, the PEACE which You promise those who come to You which surpasses their wildest dreams and the true HOPE that You alone can give;
- As politicians seek to reduce distress amongst our children by promising mental health professionals in every school in England, Lord please raise up qualified Christians who will be able to join the numbers of such counsellors who will almost certainly be looked for as soon as the election result is known; and
- Lord, please protect our children from godless philosophies and counsellings which encourage children to seek 'peace from within' rather than from You, and which claim that 'loving Yourself' is the greatest answer to self-doubt when we know that discovering that 'You love us, in spite of our failings' is the only route to permanent healing and everlasting peace.
Please note: Tomorrow (Monday 17th June), ACT is holding our termly Leadership Conversation from 7.00-7.45pm online. This Term we are looking at the issues and challenges which face whichever party comes into Government promising to place Mental Health Counsellors in every school, whatever that might eventually come to mean. The Conversation will include a live interview with Dr Julie Maxwell, a Christian doctor and community paediatrician who has over 20 years' experience of working with chldren with special educational needs, autism and language disorders. Her additional interest is in the management of children who are questioning their gender.
Please register through the Events section of the ACT website, share with others whom you might think could be interested, and join us if you can.