To help teens pray to their heavenly Father, read these insights from veteran youth ministry leader Leneita Fix.
Once, I had the awesome opportunity to offer some training in a dear friend’s small town in Kansas. After five days away, I sat on the plane ready for home. Plugging into music, a favorite worship song came on just as the plane engines started to roar.
I can’t quite explain why. But for some reason at this very moment I teared up, overwhelmed with love for my Savior. Not long after we got into the air, the plane began to bounce and shake. My palms started to sweat, and fears arose as the pilot came over the intercom.
The announcement? The pilot expected rough air for the duration of this three-and-a-half-hour flight. My prayers turned from adoration to desperation. I asked God to protect me, to get me through, and to provide a safe landing. I pleaded for help and begged for peace. Thankful for WiFi on the plane, I reached out to my husband and a friend and asked them both to pray for me also.
The turbulence didn’t let up the whole trip. In the brief interludes when it lessened, the pilot told us more “bad” turbulence was on the way. I think I held my breath the entire flight. Upon landing, I learned we had actually flown over tornadoes, which were the source of the issue. At this point, my prayers turned to gratitude, extreme and deep gratitude, for safety.
Conversations with God are what got me through three-and-a-half hours of struggle. That got me thinking about the way my students respond when they hear the phrase, “Let’s pray.” Some want to be the ones to share, others hide, and some shrug with utter indifference.
More often than not, several teens get nervous and say, “I don’t know how.” What they’re really saying is, “What if I do this wrong?”
After that rough flight, I’m inspired to help teens pray and understand prayer better.
3 Insights To Help Teens Pray
1. Prayer is about relationship.
I don’t have vulnerable conversations with people I don’t know or trust. Why would a young person want to share everything with a God they may hear about but don’t actually know well? If they don’t understand God, then let’s challenge them to get to know him.
While reading The Jesus-Centered Life by Rick Lawrence, I was struck by the idea of “shoulds.” He discusses how many of us have been told we “should” love Jesus but struggle to know his love. Students think they should love God too, but they have no idea what a relationship with him looks like.
I love this quote: “Jesus wants to capture our hearts, not force our obedience.” Let’s spend time helping students understand this. Then prayer becomes an instant response, not another “should.”
2. Prayer is about honesty.
As the plane was bouncing through the sky, my deep prayers boiled down to panicked whispers that involved me just saying, “Jesus, please.” I wasn’t the fodder for an inspirational story in which the person facing turmoil leads passengers in worship.
Instead, I was trying to connect the internet on my phone so I could text my husband. If I fell out of the sky, I wanted him to know I loved him. My faith in who Jesus is was strong; my faith in the tin can in the sky—not so much. I was desperate and raw with the Lord.
If we’re in a loving relationship with someone, we trust they can handle our doubts, bad days, and tantrums. We need to let students know that the God of the universe is big enough to handle anything—and intimate enough to care.
