P.R.A.Y
PAUSE
REJOICE & REFLECT
ASK
YIELD
Personal Worship
Since we are children of God, the world does not see us as it should and our hope lies in something that we cannot see, but can be assured of.
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
Lord, I approach your throne today in total confidence. I come to you confidently in prayer, not in my own merit or worth, but the only confidence I have is that Jesus, your beloved Son, suffered and died on my behalf. His blood is my access to you and it’s in his name alone that I pray.
We choose to rejoice in the power of God’s Word, with all his people because Jesus taught us to pray like this…
and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
Matthew 6:12
Today we are reflecting on the words of John in 1 John 3:1b-3 where we read:
The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.
1 John 3:1b-3
One of our biggest fears as Christians is becoming the kind of Christian that sticks out like a sore thumb in our current culture. John reminds us though that not only should this happen, but we should be encouraged when it does. If we look like a world that does not have the DNA of the family of God then we should be concerned. We should crave to look like our Father. The world should look at us and not understand us, because they don’t know God.
John then shifts back to our hope for the future. He says we are his children, but we have yet to receive our full inheritance. We know and trust that it is coming, but the glory of it all has not arrived. When Jesus returns we will see him as he is. We will see him in his glorified human body. A body that shares in our humanity, but is in its perfected form.
Our hope then is in him and because our hope is there we seek purity in this life. We seek after purity not to abide by the rules to save ourselves, but because we are in a relationship with the One who is pure, we want to be more like him. My incentive to seek after purity in this life is based on having the higher love of the Father. My devotion to Jesus causes me to want more of him and when I have more of him my life will exemplify that.
We are children of God, and because of this, the world should be confused by us. The world doesn’t know our father so they would never understand our values or the way we choose to live. We live this life knowing that we have yet to receive the full inheritance of the Father. One day we will see Jesus. Because we trust that we will see him, we live this life in the hope of that day. Our life here though desires to be more like Jesus the Righteous. A Jesus who because we know relationally we strive to look more like him in his purity.
Jesus, I ask that you would give me hope to see you. A hope that is in you alone. Show me where my hope is misaligned in this world. Holy Spirit would you convict me of where my life lacks a desire for purity. Convict me of the areas of my life that look exactly like the world says it should look. Remind me this day, that I live with a hope that is unshakeable. A hope that you will return in all of your glory for you children and my life here should reflect that.
Reflection Questions:
1) Where have I allowed the values of a world that does not know God to shape my life?
2) What does it look like to live a life of purity today?
Our Father and our God, I come to you now to ask for revival in our nation. I pray that your Spirit would fall on your Church. Would you wake us from our slumber and free us from our love of this world? I ask that you would manifest yourself in a supernatural way in this season of time and draw all people to yourself. Come in such power and glory that we would know that this was of you and not the work of human hands. Hear the cry of my heart and respond oh Lord!
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…
The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.
1 John 3:1b-3
Yielding Prayer
Holy Spirit, would you fall on my life in this moment? I cannot live the life you have called me to without your power in my life. Today, fill me the love that God has for me as his child. Open my eyes to the fact that this world is not what I hope in. Break the chains of the bondage that keep my eyes and focus on the things that are passing away. Equip me and transform my heart to love and desire a purity that looks like Jesus. Draw me close today.
Yielding Promise
And now, as I move into the day ahead, the Lord who loves me reminds me in 1 Corinthians 13:12…
For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
1 Corinthians 13:12
Closing Prayer
Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me,
Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ on my right, Christ on my left,
Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down,
Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of every man who speaks of me,
Christ in the eye that sees me,
Christ in the ear that hears me. Amen.1
1Saint Patrick