A week of prayer for young people

All this week, the organisers of next Saturday’s Youth Work Summit event (which include Premier Youthwork) are inviting you to join them in praying for the young people of the UK. You can find out a bit more about the idea here. Each day, we’ll be posting a few prayer pointers on here, as well as suggesting some of the people and organisations that you might like to join us in praying for who work in that area.

Today, our focus is on young people, sex and relationships. You don’t need us to tell you that young people are bombarded with images and ideas about sex and relationships that are far from healthy, and many of them are making damaging choices. So let’s pray for wisdom – wisdom for young people who are forming opinions and basing decisions based on what the media throws on them, wisdom for parents and those who work with young people in this area, and wisdom for the Church, that we would find fresh inspiration to speak into an ever-changing culture.

Suggested prayer points:
- Pray for young people who are struggling in this area: be it with bad relationships, pornography or poor decision-making.
-Pray for young people who don’t appear to be struggling in this area, but still have to make decisions or resist temptation on a daily basis
- Pray for the government and those making decisions about internet filters that can restrict porn usage
- Pray for those who seek to advise or counsel young people in this area
- Pray for Christians working in this area – either through their youth work, church or schools – for wisdom and access to the right resources

Some organisations and individuals working in this area, who you could join us in praying for today:
Romance Academy support and train youth workers to help young people build and sustain healthy relationships.
The Golddigger Trust work with young people around issues of self-esteem and sexual exploitation.
The Naked Truth Project is a charity aiming to free young people from use of pornography and one of the partners behind the Pornscars Conference.

If you tweet, why not share your reflections, prayers and prayer requests using the hashtag #prayforyouth. Just don’t do it instead of actually praying…