P.R.A.Y

PAUSE

REJOICE & REFLECT

ASK

YIELD

Personal Worship

Today, John gives us our first test to see if we truly know God or have deceived ourselves.

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.

Pause

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

O God, for you alone my soul waits in silence in this moment. I wait in your presence for my salvation comes from you and from you alone. You alone are my rock and my fortress. In you I place my trust. (Psalm 62:1-2) I ask that your Holy Spirit would fill me as I enter in.

Rejoice and Reflect

We choose to rejoice in the power of God’s Word, with all his people in Psalm 139…

O Lord, you have searched me and known me!
You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
    you discern my thoughts from afar.
You search out my path and my lying down
    and are acquainted with all my ways.
Even before a word is on my tongue,
    behold, O Lord, you know it altogether.
You hem me in, behind and before,
    and lay your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
    it is high; I cannot attain it.
Where shall I go from your Spirit?
    Or where shall I flee from your presence?
If I ascend to heaven, you are there!
    If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!
If I take the wings of the morning
    and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
even there your hand shall lead me,
  and your right hand shall hold me.
If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me,
    and the light about me be night,”
even the darkness is not dark to you;
    the night is bright as the day,
    for darkness is as light with you.
For you formed my inward parts;
    you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
    my soul knows it very well.
My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
    intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
in your book were written, every one of them,
    the days that were formed for me,
    when as yet there was none of them.
How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!
    How vast is the sum of them!
If I would count them, they are more than the sand.
    I awake, and I am still with you.
Oh that you would slay the wicked, O God!
    O men of blood, depart from me!
They speak against you with malicious intent;
    your enemies take your name in vain.
Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord?
    And do I not loathe those who rise up against you?
I hate them with complete hatred;
    I count them my enemies.
Search me, O God, and know my heart!
    Try me and know my thoughts!
And see if there be any grievous way in me,
    and lead me in the way everlasting!
Psalm 139

Today we are reflecting on the words of the Lord in 1 John 2:3-6, where we read:

And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.
1 John 2:3-6

John gives us the test for us to know that we know him. He says the way that we know that we know him is if we keep his commandments. We have confidence when we look at our lives and we see a life that lines up with Scripture. Of course, we are not going to do it perfectly, but if we take an inventory of the way we talk, act, spend money, treat our co-workers, and the thousand other things we do in a day does our life look like Scripture or not? John has strong words for a life that is defined by hypocrisy. For those who say they know him, but do not keep his commands he calls them liars in whom there is no truth.

Ask

Lord, I ask that you would give me clarity about myself right now. Give me courage to be honest about where my life is at in this moment. Reveal to me where I am being a hypocrite in my life. Open my eyes to see where I am out of step with your Word. Convict me by your Spirit.

Reflection Questions:
1) Do I read my Bible so I know the commandments of God?
2) Where does my life not match his Word?

Lord, I come to you on behalf of the Church here in America. Would you make her beautiful? Would you root out any hypocrisy in her, so that she will be honoring to you? Would you let the watching world see this process and be drawn to you through it.

Yield

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…

Yielding Prayer

Lord, I surrender my life to your Word. I submit to your commands. Pour out your Spirit on me and give me a renewed desire to keep your commands that I may know you deeply and intimately.

Yielding Promise

And now, as I move into the day ahead, the Lord who loves me reminds me in John 14:15-17…

If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.
John 14:15-17

Closing Prayer

As I go from here, may I feel your love as my Father, your presence as my friend, and your mercy as my Savior. Fill me, Holy Spirit, that I may walk in step with what you would have for me today! Seal in me the truths declared from your Word. Teach my heart to bow before you as my Lord in every opportunity you give me today.