P.R.A.Y
PAUSE
REJOICE & REFLECT
ASK
YIELD
Personal Worship
God’s response to their prayer is powerful.
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, you are so gracious to me that you would bend your ear to me. You are the God who is not only good, but you are near. So meet me with you nearness now. Open my eyes and my heart to what you will speak to me today.
We choose to rejoice in the power of God’s Word, with all his people in Psalm 96:
Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice;
let the sea roar, and all that fills it;
let the field exult, and everything in it!
Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy
before the Lord, for he comes,
for he comes to judge the earth.
He will judge the world in righteousness,
and the peoples in his faithfulness.
Psalm 96:11-13
Today we are reflecting on the words of Scripture in Acts 4, where we read:
And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.
Acts 4:31
The Lord met them and responded to their prayers. He was gracious and heard their cries. He gives them a physical manifestation of his presence with them. I think the hope is that he will meet us, in the same way, that he met them, so we ask and pray for exactly that.
No questions today. Take some time and just pray exactly as they prayed that day with hope and faith that God would meet us just like he met them. So that we can be filled with boldness as we go out into our world.
“Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them, who through the mouth of our father David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit,
“‘Why did the Gentiles rage,
and the peoples plot in vain?
The kings of the earth set themselves,
and the rulers were gathered together,
against the Lord and against his Anointed’—
for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place. And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness, while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”
Acts 4:24a-30
Jesus, revive our hearts. You have come to give your people abundant life. An abundant life that can only come from you. Break us of our desires for this earth that promise to satisfy us, but leave us empty inside. Give us a spirit of repentance to turn from the ways of this world and come back into union with you. In our brokenness would you fill us mightily with your Spirit? May all the glory and praise belong to you.
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.
And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.
Acts 4:31
Yielding Prayer
Lord, give me boldness to continue to speak your Word in this world as I go out from here. Fill me with your Spirit.
Yielding Promise
And now, as I move into the day ahead, the Lord who loves me reminds me in 2 Timothy 1:7:
for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.
2 Timothy 1:7
Closing Prayer
Lord, fill me with your Spirit in a way that causes me to go out from here in boldness. You have not given me a spirit of fear, but one of power, love, and self-control. Let me live this day in that way as I seek to be a light in my home, my workplace, my school, and wherever else your Spirit will lead me.
*The P.R.A.Y. acronym has been adapted from the Lectio 365 app.