Today, I have to break up the message into two parts. It’s the first day of school for my children, so every year, on the first day of school, I share scriptures and prayers you can meditate on and pray for the school year.
Part 1: A message about our children and the school year:
Here are a few scriptures you can meditate on and discuss with your children. And I will then share two short declarations: one for students and one for parents. I will also provide you with a prayer at the end. Let’s get to it. Carefully and prayerfully read these scriptures. When the time is right, discuss them with your children.
(Col 3:20 ERV)
Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord.
(Psalm 25:1-2 ERV)
Lord, I put my life in your hands. I trust in you, my God, and I will not be disappointed. My enemies will not laugh at me.
(Prov 22:6 MSG)
Point your kids in the right direction—when they’re old they won’t be lost.
(Prov 10:7 NKJV)
The memory of the righteous is blessed, But the name of the wicked will rot.
(John 14:26 ERV)
The Helper will teach you everything and cause you to remember all that I told you. This Helper is the Holy Spirit that the Father will send in my name.
(Isa 30:21 ERV)
Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.”
(1 Corinthians 15:33 NIV)
Do not be misled: “Bad company corrupts good character.”
(Psalm 34:19 NIV)
The righteous person may have many troubles, but the Lord delivers him from them all.
(Psalm 91:7-11 ERV)
A thousand people may fall dead at your side or ten thousand right beside you, but nothing bad will happen to you! All you will have to do is watch, and you will see that the wicked are punished. You trust in the Lord for protection. You have made God Most High your place of safety. So nothing bad will happen to you. No diseases will come near your home. He will command his angels to protect you wherever you go.
(1 Tim 4:12 ERV)
Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity.
(1 Thes 5:19-22 MSG)
Don’t suppress the Spirit, and don’t stifle those who have a word from the Master. On the other hand, don’t be gullible. Check out everything, and keep only what’s good. Throw out anything tainted with evil.
(Deut 31:6 ERV)
Be strong and brave. Don’t be afraid of people because the Lord your God is with you. He will not fail you or leave you.
Declaration of Faith for Students to Declare as they go to School:
Father, my life is in Your hands. I trust in you, and I will not be disappointed. I know who I am and who I belong to. As Jesus is, so am I in this world. No one can influence me the wrong way. I refuse to allow myself to be corrupted by bad company. I surround myself with the right people, and I am influenced the right way. I also influence those around me to live their lives in a way that honors You, Father.
I enter this day and this school year knowing I am anointed, intelligent, loved, and protected from all harm. I respect my parents and teachers. I honor my elders and those in positions of authority. I am kind, nice, polite, courteous, respectful, and gracious. I have friends because I show myself friendly. I am the righteousness of God by faith.
You give me a supernatural memory. The Holy Spirit helps me remember everything I need to remember for class, and I have supernatural recall during quizzes, exams, and standardized tests. Every day I declare that my mind is alert, my body is awake, and I am ready to make the most of the day You set before me.
I excel academically, I am a Kingdom example socially, and I am healthy physically. I look in the mirror, and I am pleased with what I see. I love and like myself. I have strong mental health. I am confident, bold, and fearless. I am Your child, Father, and I act like it everywhere I go. I declare this by faith. In Jesus’ name, Amen!
Declaration of Faith for Parents to Declare as their Children go to School:
Father, I place my children in Your hands. As they go to school, I trust in You, and I will not be disappointed. You give, and I give, angels charge over them to keep them in all their ways! No evil shall come upon them. In their pathway is life and no destruction.
My children resist negative influences, they are shielded from all harm, they are resistant to physical illness, and they are divinely capable of excelling at everything they put their hands to do.
I love them, and You love them. More importantly, my children know they are loved. They love and like themselves. They believe what You believe about them. They are bold, confident, and fearless. They are respectful and kind. They are courteous and polite.
My children are sharp and focused. They understand, comprehend, process, and digest everything that relates to their education. They excel academically, socially, and spiritually! This year is their best year because You are with them everywhere they go! I declare this by faith. In Jesus’ name, Amen!
Prayer for children for the school year:
Father, we pray for children all over the world as they go to school this year. We stifle the hands and mouths of bullies. We come up against danger, violence, fighting, attacks, and school shootings. We command angels to shield and protect our children, their teachers, and their school grounds this year.
May Your love fill every facility. May teachers have the patience required to adequately teach their students. May the students be respectful, well-mannered, and focused on their education. May the children excel academically and socially. May this year be the best year of their lives.
As parents, may we also develop patience with our children. May we all be involved in our children’s education and their lives. May our children grow up to be the men/women You have called them to be for such a time as this! May our children know that You are ON them, IN them, WITH them, and FOR them! We pray this by faith. In Jesus’ name, Amen!
If you want to downloadable PDF version of these prayers, here is the link: https://bit.ly/studentandparentprayer
Please help me share the link!
Part 2: Today’s Word
Today, we continue our series entitled “Living the Grace Life,” where we will learn to embrace and walk in God’s unmerited, unearned, and often undeserved favor throughout 2025.
As part of this series, I am teaching a verse-by-verse exposition of the book of Galatians.
Key scriptures for this year:
2 Corinthians 9:8 TPT
“Yes, God is more than ready to overwhelm you with every form of grace, so that you will have more than enough of everything—every moment and in every way. He will make you overflow with abundance in every good thing you do.”
Galatians 5:4 TPT
“If you want to be made right with God by fulfilling the obligations of the law, you have cut off more than your flesh—you have cut yourselves off from Christ and have fallen away from the revelation of grace!”
Romans 6:14 ERV
“Sin will not be your master, because you are not under law. You now live under God’s grace.”
1 Corinthians 15:10 CEV
“But God treated me with undeserved grace! He made me what I am, and his grace wasn’t wasted. I worked much harder than any of the other apostles, although it was really God’s grace at work and not me.”
Scripture(s) we will study today:
Galatians 3:3 ERV
“You began your life in Christ with the Spirit. Now do you try to complete it by your own power? That is foolish.”
Philippians 1:6 TPT
“I pray with great faith for you, because I’m fully convinced that the One who began this gracious work in you will faithfully continue the process of maturing you until the unveiling of our Lord Jesus Christ!”
Ephesians 2:10 ERV
“God has made us what we are. In Christ Jesus, God made us new people so that we would spend our lives doing the good things he had already planned for us to do.”
Setting the Stage:
Today, we move to Galatians 3:3, where Paul asks one of the most important questions in the entire New Testament: “You began your life in Christ with the Spirit. Now do you try to complete it by your own power?” He goes on to say, “That is foolish.” This question addresses one of the most dangerous traps believers can fall into: starting in grace and shifting to performance. If you make this transition, your Christian life will fall apart, because, quite simply, you are not that good.
The Galatian believers had received salvation by grace through faith, but false teachers were trying to convince them that their spiritual maturity and growth required human effort, religious performance, and keeping The Law. Paul was shocked by this backward thinking. He essentially asked, “You started this Christian journey by the Spirit’s power. Why would you think you can complete it by your own flesh?”
This same trap exists today. Many believers understand that salvation is by grace, but they think sanctification (spiritual growth) is by performance. They believe God saves them by grace but grows them by works. This creates a life of spiritual frustration, where they’re constantly trying to perfect themselves rather than trusting the same grace that saved them to also develop them.
I’ve tried to grow and go through the process of development with own effort. And now, I am doing so by God’s grace. Take it from me, living the grace life is better!
So, what does this mean to you today? A few things.
1. The Same Grace That Saved You Is The Same Grace That Transforms You.
If you received the Spirit by faith and not by works (Galatians 3:2), then why would you think spiritual growth works differently? The same power that saved you is the same power that sanctifies you.
How this applies to you:
— Grace is not just for salvation; it’s for the length of your journey with God. You don’t graduate from grace to performance; you grow deeper into grace.
— When you allow someone to convince you to think that once you are saved, that YOU must live right in order to stay saved and to grow as a believer, you’re actually insulting the same grace that saved you. You’re saying grace was good enough to save you, but not good enough to keep you or change you.
— Spiritual growth is not about trying harder; it’s about dying harder, and trusting deeper. The more you understand grace, the more naturally you’ll walk in righteousness.
— Performance-based sanctification leads to exhaustion and frustration because you’re trying to do what only God can do. Grace-based transformation creates rest and supernatural change. Many believers waste time focusing on external religious indicators like clothing standards, makeup restrictions, and jewelry prohibitions, thinking these make them righteous, when true holiness flows from a transformed heart, not a religious dress code.
— Every time you catch yourself thinking, “I need to do better, try harder, or be more spiritual,” (with the emphasis on YOU), remember that God is the one who is changing you. The goal is not to make YOURSELF like Jesus; the goal is to allow the Spirit to conform you into His image through grace.
— Stop measuring your spiritual growth by your performance and start measuring it by your understanding and experience of God’s grace. The more grace you receive, the more you’ll naturally reflect Christ.
2. Human Effort Cannot Complete What the Spirit Started.
Paul calls it “foolish” to think that human effort can perfect what the Spirit began. This is because flesh and Spirit operate on completely different principles. The flesh operates by performance, striving, and self-effort. The Spirit operates by grace, rest, and divine power.
How this applies to you:
— You cannot “flesh” your way into spiritual maturity. Trying to perfect yourself through self-effort is like trying to fly a plane by running faster. It’s the wrong instrument for the job.
— When you attempt to grow spiritually through performance, you actually hinder the Spirit’s work in your life. You’re mixing two incompatible systems, and you are putting the most effort into the wrong one.
— Human effort produces religious behavior; only the Spirit produces Christ-like character. External compliance is not the same as internal transformation.
— The flesh is weak, and it will fail you every time you try to perfect yourself through willpower, discipline, or religious activity without grace. In other words, you cannot WILL YOURSELF to sanctification. You must DIE to it, so the grace of God can empower you to live as Jesus lived.
— Spiritual transformation happens from the inside out, not from the outside in. The Spirit changes your heart, which naturally changes your behavior. Right believing leads to right living. This is not about striving. It actually involved resting in who God called you to be.
— When you feel frustrated with your lack of spiritual progress, ask yourself: “Am I trying to perfect myself, or am I trusting God to transform me?”
— The Christian life is supernatural, which means it requires supernatural power. Human effort, no matter how sincere, cannot produce supernatural results.
3. God’s Transformation Process Is Grace-Powered and Guaranteed.
Philippians 1:6 assures us that “the One who began this glorious work in you will faithfully continue the process of maturing you.” God didn’t save you and then leave you to figure out the rest on your own. The same grace that initiated your relationship with Him will complete it. Grace empowers you to live the life you could never live in your own strength.
How this applies to you:
— God is committed to finishing what He started in your life. Your transformation is not dependent on your ability to maintain it; it’s guaranteed by His faithfulness. The only thing that can stop it is if there is too much of YOU in the way.
— You don’t have to worry about whether you’ll make it or whether you’ll grow spiritually. The same God who saved you is actively working to conform you into Christ’s image. But what you must do is STOP trying so hard to make things happen. You must learn to discern God’s voice and be led by His Spirit.
— There are so many believers struggling with sin, because they are trying to WILL themselves into a holy life. While the Bible says, “Let me emphasize this: As you yield to the dynamic life and power of the Holy Spirit, you will abandon the cravings of your self-life.” (Gal 5:16 TPT). Does that sound like striving or resting?
— Grace doesn’t just forgive your past; it empowers your future. You get to live from a position of divine strength rather than human weakness. When you understand that grace provides both the desire and the power to live righteously, obedience becomes natural rather than forced.
— You don’t have to fight against your old nature; grace gives you a new nature that naturally wants to please God. The battle shifts from trying to be good to simply being who you already are in Christ.
— When you die to your old nature and embrace your new nature, you quickly discover that God gives you both the desire and the power to do what pleases Him. The Bible says, “Yes, it is God who is working in you. He helps you want to do what pleases him, and he gives you the power to do it.” (Phil 2:13 ERV).
— Trust the process of grace in your life even when you don’t see dramatic change. God is always working. Rest in the truth that God is working, on the inside of you, to transform you into the man/woman you were born to be. Meditate on His Word, attempt to be led by His Spirit, and trust God to do what only He can do in, with, and through your life.
— The Bible says, “God has made us what we are. In Christ Jesus, God made us new people so that we would spend our lives doing the good things he had already planned for us to do.” (Eph 2:10 ERV).
This means several things:
a) You are not a mistake.
b) God made you a new person when you were Born-Again.
c) God made you a new person so you could spend the rest of your life doing the good works you are destined to do.
d) You are not doing the good works TO BE saved. You are doing them BECAUSE you are saved.
e) You don’t WORK FOR GRACE. You WORK BY GRACE!
f) As you work and you do the things God called you to do, you are being changed into the very image and likeness of Jesus. This change is happening by God, not by you. You are not WILLING your way to transformation; it is happening by grace!
That’s enough for today.
Declaration of Faith:
Father, I thank You that the same grace that saved me is the same grace that transforms me every day!
I refuse to try to perfect myself through human effort; I trust You to complete the work You started in me.
I am not foolish enough to think that my flesh can finish what Your Spirit began.
I die to my old nature and embrace my new nature that naturally wants to please You.
My spiritual growth is not based on my performance but on Your faithfulness to transform me from the inside out.
I rest in the process of grace, knowing that You are actively working in me to conform me into Christ’s image.
I yield to the dynamic life and power of Your Holy Spirit and abandon the cravings of my self-life.
I don’t work FOR grace; I work BY grace, doing the good works You already planned for me to do.
I am living #TheGraceLife from beginning to end, and GREATER IS COMING FOR ME!
I declare this by faith. In Jesus’ name. Amen!
This is Today’s Word! Apply it and prosper!
