Collegiate Day of Prayer Global: 40-Day Prayer GuideSample

Day 2: Bold Prayers Change the World

By Jennie Allen (Jennie is the Founder and Visionary of IF:Gathering and Gather25 and is a New York Times bestselling author.)

Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.

– James 5:16

“If God is in control of everything, why should I even pray?” Have you ever had this thought?

If so, you’re not alone! So many of us struggle with prayer; maybe we don’t understand it, or nobody taught us how to pray, or we just don’t feel like it makes a difference. But here’s what I believe with all my heart: prayer is the greatest tool we have to connect our lives to God, fight our sin, and see change happen in the world.

I know that prayer can feel confusing or risky. But I also know that when we pray bold prayers in faith, God moves. I truly believe one of the biggest reasons we don’t see the Holy Spirit moving in miraculous ways around us is because we aren’t asking Him to do so! My hope is that we as a global Church will begin to pray bigger, bolder prayers. We have to pray prayers that feel risky.

We are living in a world that needs big things from God. We need Him to awaken the hearts of believers everywhere in a fresh, urgent way. We need Him to bring repentance as people turn away from sin and toward Him. We need Christ-followers on every single continent to boldly share the gospel with the 5.5 billion people who aren’t yet believers. In short, we need Him to move in big, powerful ways.

So many of us get stuck here. We care so much, but we are so afraid to ask God to do the big things because we are afraid He will say no or that it just doesn’t matter if we ask or not. It feels too risky to pray the big prayers.

But prayer does change things. James 5 tells us that the prayers of the righteous are “powerful and effective.” When we take our bold requests to Him in risky prayer, He hears and He moves. Nothing is too big for Him! His response may not always be exactly what we imagined or hoped for, but we can pray with confidence nonetheless. He is delighted by our faith and is moved by our bold prayers.

That’s worth the risk.

PRAYER POINTS:

• Boldly ask the Holy Spirit to move in a miraculous way across every single continent.
• Pray that God will give believers all around the world a renewed desire to share the gospel with those around them.
• Pray for those who are not yet believers in Jesus—that they will hear the gospel, repent, and turn to Jesus in faith.