P.R.A.Y
PAUSE
REJOICE & REFLECT
ASK
YIELD
Connect Relationally
As we look again today at our second core value: Connect; we see that we also connect to encourage each other in our faith and to stir up joy!
Together we will pray (P.R.A.Y.) each day – ‘P’: Pausing to be still as we come into the presence of the Lord. ‘R’: Rejoicing as we remember who our God is and what He has done, and Reflecting on His word. ‘A’: Asking God to help us and others. And ‘Y’: yielding to His will in accordance with His word.
As I come before you to pray, I still my thoughts and quiet my mind. I seek to make you the center of my focus.
Prayer of Approach
I wait for you, Lord! I will be strong and let my heart take courage as I wait for you. (Psalm 27:14) I believe that my waiting will not be in vain, for you will come to meet me in my need!
We choose to rejoice in God’s faithfulness with all his people in the words of Isaiah…
O LORD, you are my God; I will exalt you; I will praise your name, for you have done wonderful things, plans formed of old, faithful and sure.
Isaiah 25:1
Today we are reflecting on a command given to the church in Ephesus:
And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.
Ephesians 5:18-21
Paul, here, compares drinking in excess (as opposed to moderation) to being filled (or intoxicated) with the Holy Spirit. Whereas drunkenness leads to foolishness, poor choices and regret – a false kind of “joy” – being filled with the Spirit makes lasting and authentic joy overflow out of our lips and lives in songs of praise and thankfulness, irrespective of our circumstances! For instead of escaping into a drunken stupor as a means of escape from our circumstances (at least, until we become sober again), we purposefully place them into the capable hands of Jesus, who walks with us in them and whom we can trust to bring good out of them.
Although this passage primarily calls to mind corporate worship on Sunday, it’s something that we can also do with and for each other in smaller groups and in other settings.
We see an example of this in Acts 16, where we find Paul and Silas locked up in a prison for doing the good work of freeing a female slave of her demons, thus robbing her owners of her powers of telling the future. Yet, we read in verse 25 that at: “About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.” How amazing! They weren’t sitting in their cell complaining about the injustice of it all, or maligning the owners of the girl, or the magistrates who put them there. In fact, they weren’t angry or bitter toward God or anyone else for their painful predicament! Instead, they were praying and singing hymns to God! And God came in that surrender and praise, bringing such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken, the prison doors were opened, and everyone’s chains came loose! Ultimately, this led to the salvation of the jailer and all of his household. When we come together, either as 2 or 3 Christians, or as a whole church, filled with the Spirit and praising God irrespective of our circumstances, God enters into our praise and miraculous things happen. Who knows what chains he will break in us, and for us, and through us, as we learn to Gather like this!
My Father, how do I approach my fellow believer? Do I come in joy, having laid down all my worries and complaints at your feet, fully surrendered, trusting you, and having been filled? Or do I go to them with my worries and complaints, seeking only to be justified in my feelings? Lord, you have given us each other to help in those moments where we are down and discouraged.
We are to lift each other up and point each other to the help and hope found only in Jesus! Help me to be someone who allows myself to be reoriented by my brother and sister, when all I want is validation for my anger or bitterness. And help me to be a “lifter” of others; the kind person that brings your presence with me in power wherever I go!
Father, examine my motives and attitudes regarding corporate worship. Have I neglected this command? Am I focused on something besides giving you the praise and honor you are due during our time of singing and praying? Have I made it somehow about me and not you? What would you tell me about my singing and my encouragement to the body by my participation? How might my singing encourage others? Help me also to be conscious of the need to lift up those who come in discouraged (perhaps with a hug or a word of encouragement). And if I should come to church earlier or stay later or invite someone I know who is struggling to sit with me, make that clear to me. Show me how I can be true to this command, my Jesus.
As I read the passage again slowly, I listen for anything that You would say to me in it. Help me see how to position my life in order to yield to your word…
And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.
Ephesians 5:18-21
Yielding Prayer
My Jesus, I am guilty of just going through the motions of a song at church sometimes. I am also guilty of complaining in my heart if I don’t like a song! Father, forgive me for not coming to church prepared to offer you the worship you are due just because I may not like the format that praise is wrapped in. May my heart be to sing only to you, with all that I am, for all that you have done! And may the collective shouts of praise and cries of thanksgiving of all of us at Rio arise before you as a pleasing aroma! We are truly grateful for all you!
Yielding Promise
And now, as I move into the day ahead, the Lord who has loved me and called me out of darkness says to me in 1 Peter 2…
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
1 Peter 2:9-10
Closing Prayer
Grant to me, Lord I pray, the Spirit to think and do always those things that are right, that I, who cannot exist without you, may by you be enabled to live according to your will; through Jesus Christ my Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.2
1Phyllis Tickle, Divine Hours, Prayers for Summertime, (Doubleday: Random House), The Prayer Appointed for the Week, pg 367.