VBS Work Still To Be Done...In Prayer

As Vacation Bible School approaches next week, volunteers have already spent hours in preparation and set aside hours more in the coming days.  Sets and decorations have been built and will be assembled.  Snacks and activities have been planned and will be prepared.  Bible lessons are being studied.  All these preparations are time-consuming, significant, and essential.

Yet, the most important work to be done still is to labor in prayer.  Not everyone can be involved in every ministry and activity of the church.  However, everyone can pray for every ministry endeavor.  As the culture of prayer grows at Providence, we will joyfully embrace this responsibility and privilege.  With that in mind, I’d like to remind you to pray for VBS and emphasize a few needs.

Let us pray for the clarity of the communication of the good news.  Paul himself asked prayer for this very thing, “…pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ…that I may make it clear…” (Col 4:3–4).  Such a call for prayer must mean that if God doesn’t work, the labor is in vain.  It must also be the case that God works through the prayers of His people.  Let us therefore labor in prayer that God might go before those laboring in the gospel at VBS.  Let’s pray for many opportunities to speak the truth, not just in formal teaching times.  Further, let’s pray that God would prepare the words of those proclaiming AND that He would prepare the hearts of the hearers, setting the stage for clear communication and reception of the good news.

Let us pray for the safety and security of the kids.  Our children’s ministry leaders—particularly Pastor John and Joe and Hannah Martell—have devoted countless hours to devising procedures designed to provide a safe ministry environment.  Our Sunday mornings work like a well-oiled machine because we do it weekly.  VBS obviously is once per year and there are many moving pieces, not to mention many moving bodies!  Let’s pray for vigilence and extra care on the part of the volunteers and for God’s sovereign protective hand.  Of course, we want to avoid any harm for the sake of caring well for the children.  Also, we want to avoid anything that might distract from the message proclaimed.  May the Lord providentially provide an atmosphere of safety that the gospel may go forth.

Let us pray for the joy and stamina of the workers.  As mentioned, much time and energy has been devoted to this endeavor and it has not yet officially begun.  Each volunteer will be arriving toward the end of a day that has already required much of them.  With that in mind, let’s pray that God would bless them each day (1) with an eternal perspective; (2) personal devotional sustenance; and (3) physical endurance.  Though trials may come, let us pray that their hearts would say, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent me and to accomplish His work,” (John 4:34).

Let us be intentional in using the VBS Prayer Guide. (You can find the prayer guide here.) Suggestions:

1. Set aside time during your daily devotions to meditate on one of the Scripture verse(s) on the prayer guide.  Spend several minutes reflecting on and/or writing about its truth and applications.  Then pray for that section’s prayer requests in light of that Scripture reference.  
2. Use the prayer guide as a resource in your family worship in these last days leading up to VBS, concluding with prayer together.  
3. Our prayers over meals tend to be the most rote, repetitive, even mechanical prayers of the day.  After mindfully thanking God for the food you’re about to eat, lift up a petition from the prayer guide for VBS.  In fact, why not purpose that between now and next Wednesday you’ll not approach the Lord in prayer without asking His blessing on VBS?
4. Set an alarm for five times during the day and pray for one of the five sections of the prayer guide.  
5. If you’re not already volunteering, set aside time during VBS each evening (6:30pm-8, Sun-Wed) to pray strategically through the guide.  Perhaps read through that evening’s teaching text and pray for it’s impact on the children.

New Testament exhortations to pray for the spread of the gospel indicate both that prayer is necessary and that God is eager to answer (Col 4:3-4; Eph 6:18-20; 2 Thess 3:1-2; Acts 4:24-31).  Therefore, let us petition Him with fervor and expectation regarding the sowing of gospel seed in the hearts of these young ones!