How to Pray for My School - a Guide for Students (Teens)Sample

Devotion

Christ, our Lord and Savior, is interceding on our behalf. That’s exactly what Isaiah 53:12 shows us. The entire chapter 53 in Isaiah is a stunning poem about the life, suffering, crucifixion, death, and resurrection of Jesus. But Isaiah ends his prophetic poem with a declaration; “Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.” Isaiah shows what Christ had achieved, but he makes an interesting last comment, “and makes intercession for the transgressors.” Other literal translations render the words “will intercede.”

Christ is and will be interceding for the transgressors until the day of His return. Intercession in the modern context means to “pray in favour of another.” Though this is true, it lacks the passion of the original meaning. In the Hebrew language, the word for interceding is “פגע,” which is pronounced paw-gah. It means to cause to entreat and to interpose. I know these are not words we use in our everyday language – so let’s take a moment to find out what they mean. Entreat means to plead with someone earnestly and passionately to persuade! Interpose means to intervene or step in between two parties (people). That is what Christ does! He was crucified on our behalf. When He was raised in glory, we were included in His resurrection! Since then, Christ has been interceding on our behalf! The accusations of the enemy are lies. Jesus has interposed Himself between the Accuser and the Father - which means God does not perceive us in light of the accusations made against us but rather in light of Christ, who lived and died a perfect life on our behalf. God sees Christ when looking at you; that’s the beauty of Intercession.

You might be wondering to yourself, what does this have to do with me praying for my school? Well, it’s simple. Christ is an intermediary in His character. And the moment we give our hearts to Christ, we become like Christ! That’s precisely what 2 Corinthians 3:18 and James 1:22-25 teach us. These Scriptures show us that we look to Christ as if in a mirror; we take our cue from the One in whose Image we are designed. The logical conclusion is this: because Christ does intercession on our behalf, we join Him in doing intercession on behalf of others!

When you pray:

Pray that the Lord will impart to you the character of Christ so that the love of God that was poured into you by His Holy Spirit will fill your heart with compassion to intercede for others