Darin Stevens shares: A Teenager’s First Prayer

 

I was just walking out of the door of the coffee shop at the end of the evening.  As usual, groups of teenagers were still hanging around on the high street.  One of teens stopped me and said, “Can you make sure to pray for me this week?  I just put in my application at a place in town and I really need the job.”  “Sure,” I replied.  I looked around at the three other guys standing next to us and said, ‘Can we pray for Paul* right now guys?”  Well, those were the words that came out of my mouth.  But in my head I was thinking, “What am I doing?!  This is never going to work.  One of these guys has never been in a Christian conversation with us before and another has specifically told me he does not want to pray out loud.”

 

 

Then the most amazing thing happened.  They bowed their heads and started to pray for Paul.  The lad I knew I could count on started first, followed by the teen who had told me not two weeks before that he didn’t want to pray out loud.  The most encouraging moment was when the teenager who was completely new to all of this said, “Is it my turn now?”  “Sure,” I said, “If you want to!”