P.R.A.Y

PAUSE

REJOICE & REFLECT

ASK

YIELD

Personal Worship

This week we will look at the love category of the spiritual gifts. We begin the week by looking at what Paul has to say about love in 1 Corinthians 13.

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 come to you now, would you give me a deep desire to commune with you during this time? Grant me an inexplicable delight in your Scripture this morning. Give me trust in your goodness that allows me to enter into prayer openly and honestly. I trust that you will meet me in this place.

Rejoice and Reflect

We choose to rejoice in the power of God’s Word, with all his people in Psalm 47:

Clap your hands, all peoples!
  Shout to God with loud songs of joy!
For the Lord, the Most High, is to be feared,
    a great king over all the earth.
He subdued peoples under us,
    and nations under our feet.
He chose our heritage for us,
    the pride of Jacob whom he loves.

Psalm 47:1-4

Today we are reflecting on the words of Scripture in 1 Corinthians 13, where we read:

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

1 Corinthians 13:1-3

Over the next few days we will be in 1 Corinthians 13. The chapter of the Bible is best known for being read at weddings. A chapter that comes to us with a description of what love looks like. What is overlooked a lot of the time is where this chapter comes in context. Paul is writing to the church in Corinth and for chapters 12-14 he is concerned about their beliefs and uses of the spiritual gifts. We saw chapter 12 last week as Paul introduces the spiritual gifts and ends with the metaphor of one body with many members. In Chapter 13 in the verses, we just read Paul is showing us that love matters. Love is preeminent in this conversation we are having about spiritual gifts. Paul is showing us that love is the way of life in all of this.

He begins talking about himself. Paul is showing us that even as an apostle he is a part of living a life of love. He is not above any of this. He has a responsibility to act in love with all of the gifts he has been given. Paul goes through the list of some of the gifts and he shows us that when the gifts are used without love they have a debilitating effect not on the gifts, but on the person using them. When tongues are used without love it is not the gift that suffers, but the person becomes a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. Not a description of a person that is building up the body. Noisy gongs and clanging cymbals become an annoyance and an irritant in the body of Christ. Paul shows us how important this is that love is preeminent in all of this. Verse 2 shows us the extreme of this. That list of gifts would be desired deeply for the beautiful impact they could have on the body of Christ for the glory of God, but if they are used without love what becomes of the person using them? Paul says he is nothing. If Paul gives it all away but lacks love in all of this then he gains nothing.

Paul is coming to us to tell us that motivation matters in all of this. The motivation for us in the discussion of spiritual gifts is whether we are using them in love to build up the body of Christ and bring glory to God in the process.

Ask

Lord, teach me what it means for love to be preeminent in my life. Show me what it looks like for me to lead a life of love. Break me of my desire for the gifts of the Spirit if they are not used in love.

1)What does love being preeminent in my life look like?
2)Why would it be dangerous for me to be given the gifts of the Spirit and use them without love?
3)Why do I think Paul stops his discussion of the use of the gifts for this interlude on love?

Lord, pour out your Spirit mightily on our city. Give us your Spirit that convicts your people of where we are walking in darkness. Draw us back into your light through repentance and let us pursue the holiness that you have called us to. In that process give us a manifestation of your Spirit that our city has never seen before in all of its history. Draw multitudes to salvation and let your glory be seen in our streets.

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.

1 Corinthians 13:1-3

Yielding Prayer

Lord, let my life be one that seeks love to be the center of it all. Lord, I yield to the obedience that love is the motivation for all of the conduct of my life. Create in me a desire to be loving and to act in love. I cannot do this on my own, but I need you to fill me with your Spirit and transform my heart in all of this.

Yielding Promise

And now, as I move into the day ahead, the Lord who loves me reminds me in 1 Corinthians 13:7:

Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

1 Corinthians 13:7

Closing Prayer

Come, Holy Spirit. Fill me with love. Fill me with joy. Fill me with peace. Fill me with patience. Fill me with kindness. Fill me with goodness. Fill me with faithfulness. Fill me with gentleness. Fill me with self-control. Let me walk in your Spirit today as I leave here.

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