Pray Much?

As we find ourselves daily in the lives of students and daily living the call to disciple people, we often discover that we are great tacticians. I mean come on, we map out our lesson plans, list out their struggles, toil over curriculum and lose sleep over their problems. We come up with strategic ministry philosophies, leadership structure, create excel spreadsheets of our students and we now even have an online database! Don’t get me wrong, all of these things are good as we attempt to be faithful in serving God, however sometimes we act like we’re trying to judge the latest trend in the stock market rather than change the heart of a student! Lest we forget that we can’t change the heart of a student! Sometimes I laugh at my ignorant, arrogant self as I spend countless hours strategizing on how to impact the heart of a specific student and then realize I can do nothing outside of His grace. Romans 12:12 would call me to be “constant in prayer”, yet I want to rely on some Excel sheet I created. Romans 10:1 would tell us of Paul’s prayer to God “for them is that they may be saved”, yet I map out a 5 step plan on how to change their life. Paul would say in Colossians 4 to “pray for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ”, and I stay up at night trying to think another strategic way to get into their lives. I have to question myself: do I spend as much time in prayer for my students as I do strategizing on the next great thing I’m going to do with them? I hope to.