Arise Lord! Deliver me, my God!

(Psalm 3:7)

Arise Lord in Education!________________

Farah is a first grade teacher in Highland ISD in a small poverty stricken school district in West Virginia.
She is a master reading teacher and is able to relate her instruction to the real world and needs of her
students. Farah is also the Masters teacher. She facilitates a faculty prayer group which has met after school
every week for fifteen years. She helps participating staff members by relating esoteric biblical concepts to
the simple practical real world of education. God has called her to translate some of the Psalms found in the
Bible for educators. She shares them as devotionals at each meeting. The following poem was inspired by
Psalm 3. It is being presented in two parts due to its length.

Lord, lift our downcast eyes

And help us focus on you in your schools,
Not the author of lies
Who keeps telling us that whatever we do is not quite good enough
Followed by the ever growing list of things we are to do
To save ourselves and students by our own works without you.
Nothing is impossible with you God
And conversely few things are possible without you.

We the students, parents, and staff call out to you, Jesus! Jesus! Jesus!
And you answer us from the fortress, the shelter, the holy mountain
You have raised up within us
High above the fruitless plains of discouragement and murmuring found in our hearts and on our tongues.

Down this mountain flow rushing streams of grace

Cutting and coursing through deep wide channels of creativity and excellence
Into the desert of our professional lives,
Quenching the students and our own spiritual and intellectual thirst.

After this long drink of pure living water we can now sleep peacefully at night.
We can take Sabbath days of rest and not bring into the sanctuary of our home
hours and hours of work to do trucked in from school.
We awake with joy, not anxiety or sorrow, to face each new day in education.
We seek you first each new morning and not our own or others agendas.

We will not fear though, like the Red Sea,

There is a wall before us made of a thousand things we have been given at school to do,
Some of them only possible by the miracles only you, Lord, can do.

Arise Lord!
Arise in our hearts!
Arise in your schools!
Deliver us from trust in ourselves and our own work in this profession apart from you.
From you, not more money, laws, research, or personnel comes deliverance.
May your blessing continually be upon your people laboring for you in the fields of education.

Prayer: Arise Lord! Arise in our hearts! Arise in your schools!

Reflections: Has Jesus risen in your professional life? Has He risen at your school? If not through you, then whom?
Getting Real: Seek God first each day in your classroom or office. He is your first love. Give him the first fruits of your time at school,
not leftovers. Give God the first five to ten minutes when you walk through the classroom or office door each day. Be still in His
presence. Read a Bible passage and pray it for yourself and others. Thank Him for specific blessings in your professional life.

CLASSROOM LIGHTHOUSE SERIES: Fields of Faith in Education (For info or prayer contact ceaihouston@sbcglobal.net.) WEEK 17