Back to School PTA: Prayer and The Armor
It’s back to school time! Are you armored up?
Whether you’re a student getting acclimated to the new school year, or a parent/grandparent helping your kids take on this new season, there’s a heavenly “PTA” provision of back-to-school spiritual supplies that are here for your equipping: Prayer and The Armor of God!
As a mom raising 3 kiddos, I know firsthand the onslaught of troubling things happening in our world concerning our children. It is “clear as a bell ring” that our education system, schools and universities are under attack by dark forces at an accelerated level. Childhood innocence, young minds, and wholesome values are targets of the enemy’s sinister schemes. The future of the next generation is at stake.
“BE ALERT AND OF SOBER MIND. YOUR ENEMY THE DEVIL PROWLS AROUND LIKE A ROARING LION LOOKING FOR SOMEONE TO DEVOUR.” - 1 PETER 5:8
The good news is the enemy has already been disarmed and defeated (Col. 2:15) by Jesus, the Lion of Judah (Rev. 5:5)! We just have some LEARNING TO DO to lay claim to the victory. God’s Word tells us He has given us the means to overcome the enemy so he cannot harm us:
“I HAVE GIVEN YOU AUTHORITY TO TRAMPLE ON SNAKES AND SCORPIONS AND TO OVERCOME ALL THE POWER OF THE ENEMY; NOTHING WILL HARM YOU. – LUKE 10:19
As followers of Jesus we have the authority to take hold of His Word and call down heaven to earth. Just as we spend so much of our time organizing class and sports schedules, buying school supplies and back-to-school gear, we also need to invest time armoring up our kids with the Word of God and interceding in prayer for our schools, teachers and educational boards.
This was the theme of a recent PRAYday I hosted with some girlfriends on GAMGstories, an on-line faith & friendship community I have created. For a video of our latest PRAYday time, click here. You can join with us in praying the back-to-school prayers we prayed in this episode. Prayers are shown below:
For the past several years, I’ve made a habit of regularly putting on The Armor of God over myself, my husband and my kids that I learned in Ephesians 6:13-17 of His instruction book, the Bible:
“THEREFORE PUT ON THE FULL ARMOR OF GOD, SO THAT WHEN THE DAY OF EVIL COMES, YOU MAY BE ABLE TO STAND YOUR GROUND, AND AFTER YOU HAVE DONE EVERYTHING, TO STAND. STAND FIRM THEN, WITH THE BELT OF TRUTH BUCKLED AROUND YOUR WAIST, WITH THE BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS IN PLACE, AND WITH YOUR FEET FITTED WITH THE READINESS THAT COMES FROM THE GOSPEL OF PEACE. IN ADDITION TO ALL THIS, TAKE UP THE SHIELD OF FAITH, WITH WHICH YOU CAN EXTINGUISH ALL THE FLAMING ARROWS OF THE EVIL ONE. TAKE THE HELMET OF SALVATION AND THE SWORD OF THE SPIRIT, WHICH IS THE WORD OF GOD.”
I’ve also started a new prayer habit as I am running errands and doing daily life. Whenever I pass by a school, I speak the Armor of God aloud over the buildings, students, teachers, staff and buses. There is no person, place or thing that prayer cannot reach…even from a car window!
Last but not least, below are a few reSOURCEs shared during our back-to-school PRAYday episode.
reSOURCE #1: A helpful tool titled 10 WAYS TO PRAY FOR SCHOOLS created by PrayForSchools.org. You can print this chart, tape it to your pantry door to remember to pray each morning or keep it in your car to pray during drop-off time.
reSOURCE #2: THE 30 DAY HEALING DARE devotional by Amy Keesee Freudiger. Not only is this step-by-step workbook an excellent tool for physical, emotional and spiritual healing, it also lays out a path to discovering identity and purpose. This book has been life changing for both me and my husband, and we recently went through it with one of our teenage kids.
I hope these prayers and reSOURCEs have inspired you to get ‘on board’ the heavenly PTA train! Join me and my GAMG friends in committing to back-to-school Prayer and The Armor of God efforts. Together, we can bring heaven to earth in our schools and education systems!