Engage 2026 is a national prayer initiative calling every believer to commit to praying for those who do not yet know Jesus as their Lord and Saviour. Over time, our prayer is that this initiative will continue to deepen our understanding that prayer and mission are inseparable, and that every believer takes personal responsibility to pray for those around them.
During this year of prayer, we are inviting people to share experiences from their churches which may help and encourage congregations. Bridget Bloxon at Haddington Community Church has shared some thoughts about helping our young people to pray for their friends.
When I moved to Scotland at the beginning of this year to work with the young people at Haddington Community Church, Engage 2026 was just getting underway. Coming from the “Bible Belt” of the United States, I’m slightly embarrassed to admit that when I was first challenged to name ten non-Christians in my life, I struggled to think of them.
That experience was brought into sharp contrast during my first week here. I asked one of our young people about her friends, and she replied quite simply “I’m the only Christian in my year at school.” She didn’t need to come up with a list of ten people who didn’t yet know Jesus; she was surrounded by ten times that every day.
It reminded me of the reality many of our young people face. They live and learn among friends who, for the most part, have little knowledge of the gospel.
So how do we help our young people to grow in praying for their friends?
It begins by helping them see the heart of God, and casting a vision of God’s love for them. Our young people already care deeply for their friends. You can hear it in the way they speak about them and see it in the time they spend with them. We can come alongside our teens and help them answer the question: what is the most loving thing you could want for your friends? And together we remember that, ultimately, it is that they would know and experience the love of God for eternity!
And in love, we can pray. We can encourage our teens who are believers to commit to praying for their friends, knowing that salvation is God’s work. We can walk alongside our young people as they do this, and ask for the names of their friends, learning those names and praying for them. And we pray with our young people for them, faithfully and expectantly, trusting that He delights to work through the prayers of His people for the salvation of those who do not yet know Him.