Dear heavenly Father,
I come to you on behalf of the generation that is advancing behind us. Thank you for them, for their youthful zeal and compassion, for the promise of their potential.
I ask you to bless them with your peace. Amid tumultuous times, I pray they will remember, as Paul told the Ephesians, that you are our peace.
I pray you will give them wisdom to navigate these days in which the world is not always friendly to people of faith. May they always look to your Word as the source of wisdom.
Help them develop and continue the habit of reading and studying your Word regularly. May they find in it the direction they need, encouragement for their lives, promises for their circumstances and truth to apply to daily situations. We know your Spirit wants to guide us into truth, so when culture tries to assault them with its deceptive philosophy, teach them to rely on your Word as the final authority.
May they also remember to pray without ceasing. May prayer be their first response instead of their last resort. Teach them that prayer is not a ritual, but a lifestyle of communication with you. May it become as natural to talk to you as it is to breathe.
Teach them to worship you and learn to fear the Lord, not in trembling anxiety, but in awestruck wonder. May this wonder bring them into a spirit of adoration and a sense of your presence.
When they face adversity, help them to face it with courage. When they suffer loss, help them to focus not on what they have lost but on what they have left.
May they set their sights on heaven, even as they remember their earthly responsibilities.
We ask all these things in your blessed name. Amen.
-- Ron McClung
Father,
I thank you that prayer crosses the span of time — days, weeks, generations!
Thank you that each generation desires to find new ways to demonstrate their faith. May they ask, “Does this extend the kingdom of Christ? Will my community be changed by my living, my loving?”
May they embrace your Word, allowing it to guide each step they take.
May they focus on prayer. The agonizing times on their knees. The prayer breathed on the way to a crucial conversation. The silent prayer in the middle of a face-to-face encounter.
Father, help them to pursue justice. Lead them to those who are oppressed. May they be willing to go to those who are in bondage. Help them to be present for those who feel they have no value. May they never lose sight of the people around them — those who need their Jesus-centered influence and care.
Anoint, equip and encourage those who seek to bring down walls that have divided, hindered and misrepresented the gospel message, to welcome the stranger, encounter the woman at the well, take the message everywhere.
Call them to focus on the person of Jesus Christ. Teach them, through the unfolding days of their lives, to act justly, love mercy and walk humbly, fulfilling God’s requirement as written by his prophet Micah, and fleshed out in the life of Jesus, who stood in the synagogue declaring that he had come as the perfect demonstration of that sacrificial life.
Father, may integrity be as an unbreakable thread, woven through all that they do and are. It will set them apart as Christ-followers to be emulated.
And Father, give them aheart of gratitude that holds appreciation for anything good that we left them … and a heart of forgiveness for our failures.
In the name of Jesus, amen.
-- Joan Rampey
Father Dear,
It is with profound thanks and deep praise that I offer an intercessory prayer for this rising generation of young leaders. I am compelled, however, to first offer thanks and praise for the intercessory prayers offered on my behalf when I was part of the rising generation of young leaders.
With frequency and intensity that only you would fully know and understand, my godly mother interceded in prayer on my behalf over many years. Without any doubt, the trajectory of my life and ministry have been greatly impacted by those prayers in ways I cannot measure or fathom. For this incredible blessing, I once again express my deepest thanks to you.
I offer this prayer with joy in my heart for this next generation of leaders that have signed on, sold out and saddled up. I pray that they will have wisdom to grasp that care must be exercised in defending the trappings of our heritage so that the Faith doesn’t become shriveled and lose vitality. May wisdom in equal measure be given to exercise care in the passion to repackage the Faith and present it in new and culturally relevant ways so that it doesn’t become diluted and lose vitality. Help our rising generation to fully grasp that they are the generation of “trustworthy people” that Paul spoke about and to whom the Faith has now been handed. I ask that this generation pass it on intact, undamaged and undiminished to others who will, in turn, pass it on to those who follow.
Father, I plead that they may have courage in equal measure to wisdom, for courage without wisdom often leads to polarization while wisdom without courage can lead to stagnation. May this equal measure be present in this rising generation of young leaders.
Thank you, Father Dear, for hearing this prayer from an old man’s heart. Amen.
-- H.C. Wilson