Prayer Changes Everything
This semester the Baptist Student Union at the Air Force Academy has had two focuses – we’ve been walking through the book of Hebrews and have been focused on covering our lives, ministry and the Academy in prayer.
It is with those two focuses that we were drawn to Hebrews 4:16 which tells us to “approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in time of need” (CSB). We started asking our cadets what their prayer life looks like and how often they boldly come before the throne of God with the understanding that Jesus understands what we are going through.
Many of their answers concerned us. “I only pray before bed and sometimes before I eat.” “I pray occasionally but not on a regular basis.” “I’ve never prayed for longer than a couple of minutes at a time.”
This is not meant to call out the cadets at the Air Force Academy. This is an issue in most Christians lives, including Pastors and ministry leaders often. Considering that this is the reason Christ died – to allow us to be right with and come into the presence of a holy God – many Christians do not have a fulfilling prayer life with the Lord. According to one Crossway report only 2% of Christians feel “very satisfied” with their prayer life. Even Pastors have a hard time finding space to pray – only 17% of pastors pray more than 30 minutes in a day.
The concerns that rose from these responses, plus the overall heaviness of being a cadet at any of the nation’s military academies, with the additional weight of the cultural uneasiness created a desire in us to have a dedicated time of prayer. So that is what we did – a 24-hour prayer event for our cadets and leaders to take part in.
From 4 pm on September 29th to 4 pm on September 30th we had 32 cadets as well as several leaders and alumni praying for the Air Force Academy and the surrounding communities of the cadets. This was a great time to lift up not only the Academy and its leadership but individual cadets, other friends, families, as well as our government.
It was timely in that we had a cadet have an accident that cause brain trauma that we were able to lift up during this time. This was a great experience for many of our cadets and a time to see God answer prayers as the cadet has had many surprising and miraculous things happen while in the hospital.
Many of our cadets have never spent thirty minutes straight praying so it was a learning experience. It caused them to focus on Him, His will, and lifting up others for an extended period of time. This alone would have been worth the time and effort to put this event together. Praise the Lord that He wants to hear from us regularly and for larger amounts of time then we tend to give Him!
We hope to have another similar event with all of the Christian cadets in the near future. Our prayer is that it opens hearts to the Lord – both in Christians to grow in their relationship but also hearts willing to open to the Holy Spirit for the first time! It can also be a unifying experience to join in on something that all the fellow believers are doing in and over the Academy. We believe this is what God is calling us to do at this time and excitedly join Him in it! We ask that you join us too! Keep an eye out for the days we will be praying and pick a time or two during those hours to pray with us for USAFA, our government, and God’s people to join in His work wherever they have been placed!