P.R.A.Y

PAUSE

REJOICE & REFLECT

ASK

YIELD

Personal Worship

Welcome to our last week of Personal Worship of 2022! We will end our year in the Book of Jeremiah.

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

Lord, as I end this year in your presence would you meet with me? Remind me of the faithfulness you have shown me this past year. Fill my heart with joy that you are the God who loves me. Wherever I may find myself today, would you fill me with hopeful anticipation about a future with you? Meet with me, my God.

Rejoice and Reflect

We choose to rejoice in the power of God’s Word, with all his people in Deuteronomy 32:

“Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak,
  and let the earth hear the words of my mouth.
May my teaching drop as the rain,
    my speech distill as the dew,
like gentle rain upon the tender grass,
    and like showers upon the herb.
For I will proclaim the name of the Lord;
    ascribe greatness to our God!
“The Rock, his work is perfect,
    for all his ways are justice.
A God of faithfulness and without iniquity,
    just and upright is he.

Deuteronomy 32:1-4

Today we are reflecting on the words of Scripture in Jeremiah 32, where we read:

The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord in the tenth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, which was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar. At that time the army of the king of Babylon was besieging Jerusalem, and Jeremiah the prophet was shut up in the court of the guard that was in the palace of the king of Judah. For Zedekiah king of Judah had imprisoned him, saying, “Why do you prophesy and say, ‘Thus says the Lord: Behold, I am giving this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall capture it; Zedekiah king of Judah shall not escape out of the hand of the Chaldeans, but shall surely be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and shall speak with him face to face and see him eye to eye. And he shall take Zedekiah to Babylon, and there he shall remain until I visit him, declares the Lord. Though you fight against the Chaldeans, you shall not succeed’?”

Jeremiah 32:1-5

We are entering in mid-story so it is time for a little catch-up on our end. Zedekiah is the king of Judah whose capital is Jerusalem. In this situation, the prophet of the Lord, Jeremiah, has prophesied that Babylon, an enemy nation, will overthrow the city. Because of that Zedekiah locked up Jeremiah. It is not hard to understand his anger towards Jeremiah. At best, his words were demoralizing with the people having no chance of winning the battle. At worst, Jeremiah’s words could have been treason. The lesson for us today though is what do we do with the words of God that we would rather not hear? Because that is what is happening. We have the king of a portion of God’s people not only angry at the words of God but refusing to hear them. It is easy to mock Zedekiah at this moment, but the truth is I do the same thing with things that just have smaller consequences. For Zedekiah the words of God mean that they will be overthrown, oftentimes I read the words of God and disregard them because they don’t fit into my schedule. The truth is we have the same problem as Zedekiah, we don’t want to trust the word of the Lord when it doesn’t match what we want.

Ask

Lord, you are God and I am not. If I were God your words and my words would always be in unison, but the truth is they are not a lot of the time. Lord, give me ears to hear what you say not just what I want to hear. I ask to hear your voice speak in my life.

1)Do the Words of the Lord always match what I want in this life?
2)How do I respond to God when his Word says, speaks, or calls me to something I do not want or have not planned for?

God, nothing is too great for you to accomplish. As the new year approaches, I ask for you to pour out your Spirit on your people. Would you make 2023 the year you wake your sleeping church? Would you make 2023 the year you pour out your Spirit in a supernatural way in South Florida? Would you make 2023 the year we look back on and remember that it was in that year that the Lord dealt with his people mercifully by making his glory known amongst them?

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.

Jeremiah 32:1-5

Yielding Prayer

Lord, unlike Zedekiah let me yield to your word always. When it is difficult or tough to swallow let me trust in it anyway. I surrender that you are God and I am not and that changes the way that I live my life and who is in control of it. I trust you.

Yielding Promise

And now, as I move into the day ahead, the Lord who loves me reminds me in 2 Timothy 3:16-17:

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

2 Timonthy 3:16-17

Closing Prayer

Lord, as I leave this moment would you go with me? As I have met with you and heard what you have to say give me the strength to hear what needs to be heard and to obey what needs to be obeyed. Fill me with your Spirit that guides and convicts. Let me experience the love and mercy you have for me as I walk in step with you. May the words of my mouth match the meditations of my heart today?

*The P.R.A.Y. acronym has been adapted from the Lectio 365 app.