Collegiate Day of Prayer Global: 40-Day Prayer GuideSample

Day 30: Becoming Fully Convinced

By Zach Meerkreebs (Zach is a friend, encourager, author of Lower, and pastor-in-residence at Asbury University.)

For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

—Romans 8:14-17 ESV

What would it look like if on every university and college campus, students were fully convinced that they were beloved, delighted in as children, and adopted by God through the cross—and that they share in all of His benefits? How might the campuses be different?

I am spoiled to have three daughters, and a beautiful truth about children is that they rely on their father and “don’t know any better” for what they ask. My daughter Eden never shies away from asking for things—Shake Shack for dinner for the second night in a row, bath bombs, new shoes, or whatever. She is child-like; she does not know better. If we are convinced of our belovedness and adoption, how might we ask our Father differently?

In Luke 18, the disciples, thinking that they “knew better,” denied children access to Jesus. This led to correction and instructions that these children had something Jesus’ apprentices did not. In fact, the disciples would need to become like children to enter into the Kingdom of God. Many times when it comes to prayer, especially in arenas that seem difficult or hard, we lose our child-like awe, wonder, and faith. We pray for and expect tamed and “grown-up” things.

But what if the university students understood their belovedness? What if college campuses were baptized with the Spirit of adoption. How would we act differently, pray differently, worship differently, and encounter God differently?

An awakened campus is a university or college fully convinced of their belovedness as children of God.

PRAYER POINTS:

• Pray for your own awareness of this biblical truth of your own belovedness. Ask how God wants that to impact and inform the way you pray for your campus and friends.
• Contend in prayer against the things on your campus that “steal” students’ child-likeness and cause them to “know better” and lose their faith.
• Pray for God to move, pouring out His Spirit and convincing love on campuses so that students understand they are truly children of God and can live in that freedom.