On ‘Collegiate Day of Prayer’ Let’s Pray for Our College Students

Lots of prayers are being lifted up across college and university campuses today as part of the annual Collegiate Day of Prayer.

Beginning over two-hundred years ago, the last Thursday in February was set aside by every major school in America to pray not just for the students but also the institution itself.

After all, Harvard motto in 1650, “In Christi Gloriam” or “For the glory of Christ,” left no question about leadership’s spiritual convictions.

Writing about these campus prayer meetings and revivals, Henry C. Fish wrote:

In the year 1823, the last Thursday of February each year was agreed upon as the day for special supplication that God would pour from on high His Spirit upon our Colleges and Seminaries. And what have been some of the results? In the years 1824 and 1825, revivals were experienced in 5 different colleges; in 1826, in 6 colleges; in 1831 … In one of the colleges it is stated that a revival started on the very day of the concert of prayer. In 1835, not less than 18 revivals were reported by different colleges.

Prayer and spiritual awakenings have been reported at numerous college campuses over the past few years. Many will remember extended time of prayer at Kentucky’s Asbury University in 2023. Other mass prayer events have taken place at the University of Arkansas, Ohio State, Auburn, University of Georgia, and Texas A&M. Thousands of students have come to Christ and been baptized.

A group called “Unite Us” has helped to spearhead many of these prayer events on college campuses.

“Gen Z is hungry for the very things the empty, desiccated temples of secularism, consumerism, and global digital media cannot provide, but which Jesus can,” says Kyle Richter of Unite Us.

The organization has scheduled prayer time this spring at Purdue, University of Kentucky, Georgetown, West Virginia and Southern Methodist University.

All of this stands in stark contrast to the “party hardy” reputation some other colleges possess. Each year the Wall Street Journal comes out with a list. In September, Tulane and the University of Dayton were ranked at the top for party atmosphere.

According to organizers of this year’s outreach, 4,420 colleges have been adopted, meaning that prayer warriors are specifically lifting up teachers, students, and administrators at those particular institutions. The good and bad news is that there are still over 25,000 schools waiting for prayer.

Prayer is a powerful privilege for Christians, an opportunity to speak intimately with our Lord. Intercessory prayer for college students is desperately needed, especially as the evil and confusion cascade across campuses everywhere.

“Prayer is the highest activity of the human soul, and therefore it is at the same time the ultimate test of a man’s true spiritual condition,” preached Dr. David Martyn Lloyd-Jones. “There is nothing that tells the truth about us, so much as our prayer life.”

Please join us in praying for America’s colleges and its students.

Image credit: College of the Ozarks.