P.R.A.Y
PAUSE
REJOICE & REFLECT
ASK
YIELD
Personal Worship
Our final day of PW for 2022! I thought we would end the year at the end of it all, which has nothing to do with Sunday, but something that will be good for our souls.
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, 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.
We choose to rejoice in the power of God’s Word, with all his people in John 1:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
John 1:1-5
Today we are reflecting on the words of Scripture in Revelation 21, where we read:
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.”
Revelation 21:1-5
The end of one year has arrived and the beginning of a new one is about to begin. This is a time of reflection and planning. Looking back at the year behind us at all of the good and all of the bad. Planning and thinking about changes to make for the new year. Processing new habits to take us to new places in the coming year. All of that is good, but we need more than that. We need something outside of ourselves to fill us with hope and joy in this world. I don’t know exactly what all of our 2023s will look like. I do know that they will look a lot like the human experience in a fallen world. There will be highs and lows. There will be moments filled with love and joy, but there will also be moments of heartbreak and fear. There will be days of hope and optimism, but there will also be days of anxiety and pessimism. Babies will be born and loved ones will die. We don’t know what each day will bring, but we have a hope that is far greater than any experience that this earth will bring. Our only hope in life and death is in Jesus Christ, who will come again to judge the living and the dead. On that day when he returns everything bad will come untrue. Man will finally dwell again with God forever. There will be no more tears, sin, sickness, brokenness, cancer, betrayal, or anything else that seeks to hurt us in this earthly life. He will make all things new. So whatever this year brings may we face it as people who have hope outside of this world. A hope that has been purchased for us by the eternal Son of God who shed his blood on the cross so that we can be made whole again. A hope that says all of this will one day be no more and I will spend eternity with the God who loves and cares for me.
Jesus, would you fill me with hope? In a broken and sinful world, hope can be difficult to find sometimes. As the calendar turns God into the unknown would you fill me with a hope that only you can give? Lord, fix my gaze on you. There are no better hands to be in than yours.
1)Where was the Lord faithful to me in 2022?
2)How can I abide and follow the Lord more deeply in 2023?
3)How can I seek the Lord through the Scriptures and prayer this coming year?
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?
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.
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.”
Revelation 21:1-5
Yielding Prayer
Lord, I give 2022 to you. I know I wasn’t perfect, but you remained faithful to me. In the coming year may I know you more deeply. Would you reveal yourself to me? I want to experience the love and grace you have for me on a deeper level. Fill me with your Spirit. Pour out your goodness on me that I may walk with you forever and ever.
Yielding Promise
And now, as I move into the day ahead, the Lord who loves me reminds me in Ephesians 3:14-19:
For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Ephesians 3:14-19
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.