Pray for Eyes to be Open and for Children to be Drawn to God!

With everything there is to do in your children's ministry it is easy to end up focusing more on what you "do" than on what God does. But, it is essential for you to make prayer the first thing you do in your ministries. 

My pastor, Dr. Jim Samra, preached on prayer and how we need to pray for our "eyes to be open", but what else should we pray for and how do we pray? I have never found a "formula" for praying which really helped me pray. I tend to get "lost" in the "steps" . . . pray for this, then that and then the next thing . . . it all just seems to be too "rote" for me. 

A number of years ago I heard a sermon by Dr. Ed Dobson - he was my dean of students during college and ended up the Senior Pastor at Calvary Church in Grand Rapids, MI. He was preaching on prayer and said if we personalize and pray Scripture it is one of the best ways for us to learn how to talk to God. I decided to give it a try and found he was right . . . at least for me! So, today I'd like to share a prayer for salvation . . . of course while we can not pray the prayer for salvation for a child, we can pray and ask God to make their hearts tender and open, so they will choose to believe and be saved!

John 6:44-51 - "44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will raise them up at the last day. 45It is written in the Prophets: ‘They will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard the Father and learned from him comes to me. 46 No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father. 47 Very truly I tell you, the one who believes has eternal life. 48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, yet they died. 50 But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which anyone may eat and not die. 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever."

Prayer - Dear God I thank You for drawing me to You; today I'm praying for the children in my church and community. I ask You to draw them to You. Thank You for teaching us, so we can learn from You and come to You. I ask You to make the hearts of the children in this church and community tender, so they will also be able to learn from You and come to You, too! Thank You for being our Bread of Life which has come down from Heaven and for bringing us eternal life when we believe in You! I pray for the children in this church and community and ask they will choose to believe in You, so they will receive eternal life from You! Thank You, Amen!