P.R.A.Y
PAUSE
REJOICE & REFLECT
ASK
YIELD
Serve Generously
As we continue in our fourth core value, Serve, we see that there is blessing in the service!
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
My Jesus, I position my soul to wait for you! As we focus this week on “Service,” I ask that you make me to know your ways, and teach me your paths. Lord, lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all the day long. (Psalm 25:4-5)
We choose to rejoice today, with all God’s people, in how he returns in abundance, what we give…
Give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.
Luke 6:38
Today, we reflect on James 1, where we receive both a warning and a promise of blessing:
But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves…. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.
James 1:22,25
God created us not just to contemplate, but to act. It is possible for us to delight in the hearing of God’s word, and even to be willing to do it, and yet to fail entirely in the actual performance. Hence the warning of James not to delude ourselves with being hearers and not doers. One of the greatest dangers in religion is that we rest content in the presentation of the truth without then, also, immediately doing what it demands. It is only when conviction has been translated into conduct that we have proof that the truth is mastering us.
James tells us also, that we will be blessed in the doing. Jesus told his disciples on the night of the last supper, “If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.” (John 13:17) We are inclined to seek our blessings only in the gifts of God (our privileges and enjoyments); but the Lord also offers us his blessings through our obedience (in what we do). This is true, because it is only in doing, that we possess and experience the abundant life God has prepared for us. We come to know his power and fullness as he meets us in our obedience.
So my fellow brothers and sisters, let us begin! Let us believe that it is more blessed to give than to receive (Acts 20:35) and give ourselves to this ministry of love, after the example of Christ! Let us pray for and trust in God’s grace and power as we step out to find our place in the body and for direction day by day as we seek to bring light into the darkness around us. Then we will come to know this blessing that God has prepared for us!
Father God, have I believed the lie that just hearing your word is enough? Show me in what way you are calling me to be a doer. Help me to have your sense of urgency in this work, knowing people’s eternal future is at stake!
Lord in heaven, it’s exciting to think about what you could accomplish with a church full of people wholly committed to the work of the gospel! Make us that kind of people! People who choose to eagerly engage in the battle to advance your Kingdom in this world knowing that you not only go before us, but have already secured the victory! Let us take our places, trusting that you will meet us as we step out as you call!
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…
But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves…. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.
James 1:22,25
Yielding Prayer
Father, I want to know you and experience your blessing in the doing! I choose today to pursue and commit to this call to action. Lead me in your perfect will for all that you have for me!
Yielding Promise
And now, as I move into the day ahead, the Lord who loves me says to me in James 2…
Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did.
James 2:21-22
Closing Prayer
Dear Lord, as we rise to meet each new day, please let us be filled with your Spirit. Wherever we go, let us spread love, joy, peace, goodness, and faithfulness. Let us desire to become more like you and to worship you in all we do. Help us desire these things so much more than the sin that entices us. Thank you for always going before us. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.1
1Dr. Charles Stanley