Day 1: How Will You Know If You Don’t Ask?
Bible Reading: Colossians 4:2-6
Let your conversation be gracious and effective so that you will have the right answer for everyone. Colossians 4:6
MICHAEL HAD finally talked Emma into going out with him-provided they made it a double date, she said. Michael brought his best buddy, Eric, and Emma dragged along her cousin Heather. While Michael, Emma, and Heather tried to talk about things like sports and school, Eric sat like a lump on his chair, uttering nothing. He acted as if he was bored and wished he wasn’t there. And Michael could see that the deadly silence was going to ruin his chance for a second date with Emma.
After the guys dropped off the girls, Michael slugged Eric hard in the arm-and Eric had no idea why. “Your conversation didn’t exactly sparkle,” Michael ex plained. “You looked like a corpse and made me look stupid. If bringing you was all the better I could do, Emma will never want to go out with me again.”
Guess what? Meaningful friendships take meaningful conversation. How close can you get to someone whose entire vocabulary consists of grunts?
Here’s how you start a good conversation and keep going: Ask questions. So look over the questions below and pick out four or five you really like. Memorize them. Practice using them tomorrow. And to help these stick in your brain, the first letters of the words from the various categories form the word FRIENDSHIP.
faith: How did you become a Christian? When?
Reasonable plan: What goals do you have? What do you want to do in life?
Involvements: What extracurricular activities are you involved in?
Experiences: How do you spend your summers?
Needs: How can I help you? What can I do for you?
Dreams: What kind of impact would you like to have on the world?
School: Which is your favorite class? Least favorite? Why?
Home: What do you like best about your parents?
Interests: What do you most like to do in your free time?
Prayer requests: How can I pray for you?
See it? If you can ask good questions, you don’t even need to do much talking. You just need to know how to listen.
REFLECT: What do you talk about when you meet strangers? How good are you at showing an interest in others by asking questions?
PRAY: Ask God to help you pay attention to others—not just to make friends, but to make a difference in their lives.
Day 2: When Prayer Needs a Voice
Bible Reading: James 5:16-18
The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and wonderful results. James 5:16
HERB STOOD BACK, thumbs hooked in his armpits, admiring his baby-room paint job. His wife Beatrice spread Winnie-the-Pooh stick-ons all over the wall. They set up the crib, acquired an arsenal of diaper-changing supplies, and filled the dresser with baby clothes. They waited for the baby they were adopting to arrive, staring at each other blankly when none showed up on their doorstep.
And then they remembered-they hadn’t called the adoption agency!
It works the same way with friends being reborn into God’s kingdom. Wishes aren’t prayer. You can think all you want about how fantastic it will be when your non-Christian friends trust Christ. But those wishes are ultimately as effective as waiting for Storks ‘R Us to deliver the baby you plan to adopt. Until you pray, you haven’t done the one thing that brings people to spiritual birth.
Prayer is more than a happy thought. It’s an action. It’s spilling your heart straight to God. And here are some ways you can become an active pray-er:
• Pray regularly-start by thanking God and praising him for his greatness.
• Pray alone over your personal list of non-Christian friends.
• Pray for non-Christians with a small group of friends. Meet with friends at church or on campus to pray about your witness to non-Christians.
• Pray with other Christians as you walk around your campus, but not in a showy parade of the holier-than-thou club. Just walk around the areas where kids clump and ask God to set your peers free to know him.
Prayer is the big gun, your ultimate spiritual weapon. And the biggest thing you can pray about for your non-Christian friends is that they hear and respond to the Good News. You can let God know you would like to be a part of that.
However, prayer is just your first job-it isn’t your only job. At some point your friends who don’t know Christ need to hear the truth about what it means to be a Christian and be challenged to trust Christ. They need to know what Christ has done to provide forgiveness for their sin. They need an invitation to accept God’s gift of salvation—ditching the thought that they can save themselves and admitting that only what Christ has done will get them close to God and into heaven.
You can pray for your friends until you’re hoarse-but you’ll eventually need your voice to share the Good News with them. To become Christians, the people you’re praying for must hear the Good News and respond to it by trusting Christ.
REFLECT: Why has God given you the privilege of praying for friends?
PRAY: Talk to God about your attitude about praying for non-Christians. Tell him if you are eager—or apathetic.
Day 3: Bringing Out the Big Gun
Bible Reading: Ephesians 6:10-20 Pray at all times and on every occasion in the power of the Holy Spirit. Ephesians 6:18
MAYBE YOU BELIEVE that helping non-Christian friends get right with God starts with sharing the good news about Christ. Actually, it begins with prayer. When you share truth, you march into enemy territory. You can’t do that without prayer any more than ground troops can take control of enemy territory without air support.
Prayer is simply talking to God in everyday language about your thoughts, feel ings, and concerns. And you can be totally confident that God hears you when you pray. In fact, God eagerly waits for you to come to him in prayer. You are his child, and he values every minute you spend with him.
Why is prayer so great? Some important answers:
1. Prayer helps you focus on God. It helps you plug in to God’s strength (Psalm 105:4). When you take time to pray, you unplug your mind from TV and CDs and plug in to God.
2. Prayer is intimacy with God. As you pray, God becomes a deep, personal friend. As you hang with God in prayer, you stay in tune with his heartbeat for you and the non-Christians he wants to reach through you.
3. Prayer is a vital weapon in spiritual battle. Spiritual conflict is real. And prayer is the biggest evil-blasting bomb in your arsenal. In Ephesians 6:10-20, the apostle Paul lists the armor you are to use to fight the spiritual battle. He says to wear your faith as a shield against Satan’s flaming arrows, to put on salvation as your helmet, and to use God’s Word as your sword (verses 16-17). Then Paul tells how prayer works in spiritual warfare (verses 18-20):
• Pray at all times and on every occasion in the power of the Holy Spirit.
• Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for Christians everywhere.
• Ask God to give you and other Christians the right words.
• Pray that Christians will keep on speaking boldly for him, as we should.
When you pray, God acts! Your prayers for your non-Christian friends paralyze Satan as God works in their lives. God prepares your friends to receive the message— and he gives you strength to speak up.
God has his mind made up to do some astonishing things on your campus and in your community. When you pray, you get hold of God-and in sync with what he in tends to accomplish.
REFLECT: Are you taking advantage of the powerful weapon of prayer? How could your experience of prayer be improved?
PRAY: Ask God to deepen your prayer life.
Day 4: How Is Your Prayer Confidence?
Bible Reading: John 17:2-5
[God the Father has] given him [Christ the Son] authority over everyone in all the earth. He gives eternal life to each one you have given him. John 17:2
STUDENTS WHO PRAY with confidence for their schools are sure of this not-so-secret truth: God has a plan for reaching your friends at school.
God has some wild promises for you. Try this one: “Only ask, and I will give you the nations as your inheritance, the ends of the earth as your possession” (Psalm 2:8). To hear God’s promise hit home even harder, put it like this: “Only ask, and I will give you your football team-or your Spanish class, your lab partners . . .”
God’s promise is to give. Your responsibility is to ask in prayer. But you need to know how to ask confidently and take hold of what God has promised.
1. Keep depending on Christ. Jesus said, “If you stay joined to me and my words remain in you, you may ask any request you like, and it will be granted!” (John 15:7). What does it mean to “stay joined” to Christ? Try this: Remain in Christ by confessing sins God has pointed out to you and by inviting the Holy Spirit to fill your life. Allow Christ’s words to stick in you by reading God’s Word, studying it, memorizing it, discussing it, and doing what it says.
2. Pray specifically. Write down the names of people God wants you to witness to—parents, friends, classmates, teammates, etc. Ask God for exactly what you want him to do. One idea: Select a Bible verse about salvation and claim it for the people on your list. You might use John 17:2, praying, “Thank you, Lord, that you have authority over my lab partner, Vicki. I ask you to break Satan’s grip on her. Get her ready to receive your Good News.”
3. Pray according to God’s clear will. There’s no doubt about God’s will for your friends: He doesn’t want any of them to go up in smoke (see 2 Peter 3:9). When you pray that your friends will be saved and trust Christ, you can be sure you’re asking for something God has announced as his will.
4. Expect God to answer your prayers. Jesus promised: “If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer” (Matthew 21:22). As you pray for the non-Christians on your list, start to see them as people impacted by God through your prayers. Act on your belief by figuring out ahead of time how best to share the Good News with your friends. Expect that God is going to answer your prayers and liberate your friends-maybe through you.
REFLECT: How can your prayers better reflect God’s goals for your world?
PRAY: Lift some non-Christian friends up to God in prayer today.
Day 5: Up Close And Personal
| Bible Reading: James 4:7-10 Draw close to God, and God will draw close to you. James 4:8SO HOW do you get even closer to God than you are now? Try these ideas:
• Ride an elevator to the top floor of a skyscraper. • Work hard and become an astronaut. • Climb Mount Everest. • Walk around on stilts. Just kidding. Getting close to God isn’t about getting physically closer to the heavens. You want to get closer relationally. Here are a few steps you might want to consider: First, think of God as someone who wants to be your incredibly close friend. If you ever think that God isn’t interested in you or doesn’t have time for you, whack those thoughts right out of your head. They aren’t from God. He loves you and wants to get as close to you as you let him. Second, spend time with God. That translates into the nitty gritty activities of reading his Word and talking to him in prayer. When you pray, tell God about your fears and hopes. Thank him for loving you and wanting to be your friend. Confess your sin and ask him to help you get closer to him by doing the things that please him. Third, make it your habit to attend church services. You pull close to God through worship. Worship is a whole host of activities: singing praises to God with other Christians, talking to him, thinking about him, remembering how much he loves you and what Christ did for you, and learning from his Word. Okay, so your church’s wor ship services might not be the most appealing to your student tastes. You might gag at the music, and the service might seem planned only for adults. But focus on Scrip ture, the main point of the message, the words of the songs, and fellowship with your Christian friends. If you skip worship services, you miss one of your greatest opportunities to get closer to God. Your key is found in James’ simple words: “Draw close to God, and God will draw close to you” (James 4:8). With every step you take toward God, he takes a gi ant stride toward you. You can’t get closer to God just by fitting a few “Christian” things into your life. But you can get closer to him by asking him to help you get to know him better. |
REFLECT: How are you trying to get close to God? Does anything need to change?
PRAY: Celebrate the fact that God wants to be your incredibly close friend.
Day 6: This Machine Is Out Of Order
Bible Reading: 1 John 3:21-24
If our conscience is clear, we can come to God with bold confidence. And we will receive whatever we request because we obey him and do the things that please him. 1 John 3:21-22
“OKAY, GOD, I’m going to give you a chance to prove yourself.” Mark knelt beside his bed. He was nine years old and fiercely wanted to believe in God. So he bowed his head, folded his hands and kept praying.
“I really want to believe in you, God. So when I wake up in the morning, if there’s a billion dollars under my bed, I’ll know you’re real.”
Mark didn’t get the billion dollars. Maybe God turned him down because a bil lion dollars-he told God he wanted it in one-dollar bills-wouldn’t fit under the bed with the action figures, dirty clothes, and dust bunnies.
A more likely reason Mark didn’t get the money was his goofed-up idea about God. He imagined God was a heavenly vending machine: Deposit a prayer, push the right button, and you get your wish. He thought God was a sort of Santa Claus figure waiting to fulfill kids’ wish lists. If he only prayed and believed hard enough, God would plop down everything a nine-year-old heart desired.
It’s not a surprise when a kid thinks that way. Unfortunately, lots of adults also think of God as the Divine Vending Machine. They never get a better understanding of God than this “Santa Claus myth.”
God loves to answer prayer. He says, “Ask me and I will tell you some remark able secrets” (Jeremiah 33:3). He even promises, “While they are still talking to me about their needs, I will go ahead and answer their prayers!” (Isaiah 65:24).
But prayer isn’t a coin to plunk into a vending machine, and faith isn’t a button you bang on. God doesn’t cave in to human whims and wishes. God thinks bigger than petty human wishes. He’s the Almighty, Love Incarnate, the God who longs for his children to return the love he has heaped on them. He wants us to lovehim, not stuff. He wants us to seek him, not answers to greedy prayers. He wants us to obey him, not because we hope it bags us a billion dollars, but because we love him and want to please him.
Here’s the huge irony: When you quit thinking of God as a heavenly vending machine, you can be confident you will receive what you ask from him. It won’t hap pen because you punch a button and expect God to produce, but because you obey his commands and do what pleases him (see 1 John 3:22).
REFLECT: How do your prayers sound? Do you treat God Like a vending machine?
PRAY: Spend a few moments sharing your Love with God. And in your prayer, don’t ask him for anything.
Day 7: Ask for Something Outrageous
Bible Reading: John 14:12-14
You can ask for anything in my name, and I will do it, because the work of the Son brings glory to the Father. John 14:13
DERRICK GLANCES across the cafeteria to where a girl sits with her friends. Dear God, he prays silently, let me go out with her and I’ll witness to her so much she’ll for sure want to become a Christian.
Natalie lays her hand on the exam paper she has just completed. Closing her eyes, she prays without moving her lips. God, I don’t expect a perfect paper. But please make enough answers right to get me a B.
What’s the most outrageous thing you have ever asked God for? That a twenty-pound sack of money would spill at your feet? That the pimple growing like a third eye in the middle of your forehead would disappear by morning? That your parents would slip you a Ferrari for graduation-or sooner?
Jesus said we can ask him for anything. That’s right, he said anything! John 14:13 says he had a good reason to extend this invitation. Jesus-our only way to the Father and our only way to know what the Father is like—also wants to teach us to show off God’s greatness. Here’s the formula:
Your prayer for anything in Christ’s name + Christ’s perfect answer to your prayer
= Glory to the Father.
When we pray in Christ’s name, we are asking for our requests to be fulfilled in Christ’s will. Since Jesus knows how to bring glory to God, he will answer our prayers in his best way so that God receives the glory he deserves.
So even though you might ask Jesus to miraculously change the answers on your exam, he knows you could grow more and bring greater glory to God by trust ing him as you study. The result? Your prayer helps you recognize that God will help you when you study!
Jesus himself asked his Father for something outrageous, wondering aloud if he could avoid going to the cross. But he quickly added to his request, “Yet I want your will, not mine” (Matthew 26:39). Skipping the cross was not the Father’s will, for he wanted salvation for us.
So go ahead—ask for anything. But ask in Christ’s name. If you don’t get the ex act anything you pray for, it’s because Christ knows a better way to give God glory.
REFLECT: Is there anything that stands in the way of your wanting to bring glory to God?
PRAY: God, it’s a privilege to ask for what I want—and to know you will answer my prayers in ways that change me for the better and give glory to you.
taken from Josh Mcdowells youth devotions
compiled by daniel wee! 
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