Mobilising Prayer Everywhere
Resources to Fuel Global Intercession on World Student Day
It starts in the Pacific Ocean and gathers momentum as it sweeps across scores of nations until it reaches past the Americas.
This is no monster cyclone, no natural phenomenon. This is a supernatural event. It’s a wave of prayer that travels over and through the world’s campuses each year.
This is IFES World Student Day.
Each year, more than 25,000 students, staff, and supporters from across our global fellowship unite in 48 hours of prayer for student witness.
Join in this year’s event on 8 October by signing up to pray.
INFORMED INTERCESSION
The idea of praying for student witness across the whole world might seem daunting or vague. That’s why various World Student Day resources are available to help inspire and guide.
The mainstay of these are decks of Prayer Cards. They present specific, local requests that have been shared by students and staff from every region.
Among the 185 received last year, Anna in New Zealand asked us to pray for wisdom and inspiration as they explored new initiatives to stay connected with students on placements.
Eliab in the Democratic Republic of Congo sought prayer for his group – that God would enable them to truly live out the gospel amid rampant corruption.
And Isaac in Ecuador requested we pray for groups in the universities of Quito to be strengthened so that students can encounter Jesus through them.
On World Student Day, a selection of this year’s Prayer Cards will be available as a pop-up feature on the IFES home page and as an audio version in the run up (subscribe to Voices of IFES to access this as soon as it drops).
GUIDED PRAYER
Something else that informs and shapes World Student Day prayer is the theme.
Each year, a Scripture-inspired word or phrase that speaks into what’s going on in the world and across the Fellowship provides a focal point.
On last year’s fiftieth anniversary of IFES prayer days, “Immeasurably More” encouraged participants to give thanks for all that God has done through student ministry and look forward in faith for immeasurably more (Ephesians 3:20).
This year, amid the world’s ongoing unrest and uncertainties, we will respond to Isaiah’s call to “lift up our eyes”:
In a fractured and hostile world, we may feel overwhelmed and fearful. Our upward gaze on God can slip. So, this World Student Day, will you “lift up your eyes” and refresh your faith in the Maker and Redeemer of our world?
We’ll “lift up our eyes to the heavens” to focus on a Sovereign Lord who gives strength to the weary and restores the downhearted (Isaiah 40). We’ll “lift up our eyes and look around” to notice how he is already at work among the nations (Isaiah 49, 60).
REFLECTIVE RESPONSE
One resource that unpacks each year’s theme is the World Student Day Devotional Guide. It reflects on relevant Bible verses and considers how prayer for campus ministry can be shaped by them.
This year, three reflections explore what it means to “lift up your eyes”.
The first focuses on the call to lift up our eyes to the heavens (Isaiah 40), to see a Creator who cares. The second examines how lifting up our eyes to look about us (Isaiah 49 & 60) reveals a Redeemer who is already at work all around. The final meditation considers how those two truths are echoed in Psalm 121 and Genesis 22.
We share for you here the first of this year’s reflections:
DEVOTIONAL GUIDE
Day 1: A Creator Who Cares
“To whom will you compare me?
Or who is my equal?” says the Holy One.
Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens:
Who created all these?
He who brings out the starry host one by one
and calls forth each of them by name.
Because of his great power and mighty strength,
not one of them is missing.
Why do you complain, Jacob?
Why do you say, Israel,
“My way is hidden from the Lord;
my cause is disregarded by my God”?
Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
The LORD is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
and his understanding no one can fathom.
He gives strength to the weary
and increases the power of the weak.
ISAIAH 40:25-29
(If you have time today, read all of Isaiah 40)
Reflection
In the life of faith, our deepest pain comes not from adversity itself but from the doubt of divine abandonment that can lurk alongside it.
In Isaiah 40, God’s people are living in the awful reality of exile in Babylon. Lives lost. Nation humiliated. Place of worship destroyed. Homeland far away. How do they feel? Unseen and ignored – by God (v.29).
Let’s be honest: at times, we can feel let down by the One we trust and worship.
And it’s real. It’s not just a spiritual sulk. It’s a genuine complaint, like we see in the psalms of lament (e.g. Psalm 22).
So, what is God’s Word to us in such times?
Comfort (Isaiah 40:1). In these verses, God may be gently challenging the people’s view (“To whom will you compare me?”… “Do you not know, have you not heard?”), but this is no harsh rebuke.
God wills tender words (v.2). We are to hear good news (v.9). We are to see a powerful, protective shepherd God (vs.10-11) – the all-powerful, all-knowing, incomparable Creator of the universe (vs.12-24).
Is it too abstract? No, we’re pointed to something beautifully physical: the stars (v.26).
“Look up!”, says Isaiah. They don’t just “appear” each night. Their Creator calls forth each by name. Each one is accounted for because of his great power and mighty strength.
The point here is not cold, cosmic theology. It’s warmly pastoral – it’s meant as a gaze-lifting encouragement. For, with the same power, this mighty Creator calls us forth, each by name, to shine:
Do you not know? Have you not heard?… He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. (v.28-29)
When the eyes of our hearts turn downwards in disappointment, even the strongest among us can stumble (v.30). But we have a God who can renew our strength (v.31). Will we look up to him? Will we lift up our eyes?
Today, let’s fix our focus on all that testifies to a mighty Creator who powerfully cares for us.
Pray
- Does adversity in your circumstances or ministry lead you to feel unseen or ignored by God? Bare your heart before him now. How does this lift-up-your-eyes Word speak into your situation?
- Today, find a time and place where you can see and marvel at an element of creation. How does it reveal God’s powerful care? Consider how it echoes his heart for you.
- Pray for students and staff workers who are feeling weary and weak, especially those facing humiliation and persecution. Be encouraged by the testimony of this IFES movement in South Asia, where ministry has been flourishing despite discrimination, excommunication, and arrest.
To finish, read this lift-up-your-eyes-to-heaven word from Jesus: Matthew 6:25-34.
Download the whole Devotional Guide now:
WHATEVER YOU DO, PRAY
So, as we approach 8 October:
Inform your intercessions with Prayer Cards (and Regional Overview maps). Guide your prayers with this year’s “lift up your eyes” theme. Prepare your mind, heart, and spirit with the Devotional Guide.
It’s our hope that these resources will mobilise heartfelt prayer for God’s work among students this World Student Day.
But whether you use them or not, please pray.
Pray for students and student ministry. It remains one of the most strategic ways of reaching and shaping future leaders for the world and church. While today’s Gen Z students are spiritually open, many feel isolated and overwhelmed.
In our fractured and hostile world, we need to lift up our eyes everywhere and pray.
